


Wandering through Worlds

by Creatife_Clownderer



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Universe, First chapter has a lot of lore, Gen, KH1 retread, Lots of disney world headcanons, Me? Making the children slightly more relevant? Maybe., Remix of the preexisting plot, Traverse Town (Kingdom Hearts), Vanitas and Ventus will be pretty relevant, Who woulda thought, Wonderland (Kingdom Hearts), a lot of headcanons, acearo sora, but no bodies because they did war crimes, in kh, more characters to appear, oh look its disney characters having agency, riku will still be gay for him however, there is a teensy weensy murder in the first chapter, they might come up a lot later., twice, we stan a simp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 51,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27825151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Creatife_Clownderer/pseuds/Creatife_Clownderer
Summary: A reimagining of the classic Kingdom Hearts, but with stuff from future games and the manga sprinkled in. A lot of the disney worlds will get more plot as time moves on.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 15





	1. Dreams Drip from Memory

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saltycryptious](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltycryptious/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a quiet inn, in the drier parts of Agrabah, lies an old man who remembers things that he shouldn’t. Rumors of his knowledge begin spreading. Loose lips sink ships. 
> 
> Sora Dreams. Death is always too close.

Ah, I see there is someone new in this old room. Well let me tell you a story….

The Worlds were once the World. And the World did not know anything but the fusion. There was no light, no darkness, no realm in between. There were only the hearts of a few people, in the heart of the land, in the pulsing beat of the world. Time moved forward, and there lies a man with an eye in his time, and an eye far ahead in my story. This man saw the world break, and in the calamity, nothing survived. Not even the mind who had seen the tragedies before that point could survive the end of the fairy tales. And so, Fate had been born into the world in a book, and a projection. Kids sacrificed to this fate were countless, and in the darkness of the war the first source of light was seen. The keyblade war. Kingdom Hearts. Words that bring conflict to so many outside of the ranks of keyblade wielders. Should the keys have been used to sacrifice so many hearts to the light? No, far too many hearts were raised to kingdom hearts. The cloud of darkness eventually formed a twisted realm of its own, taking too many lost hearts and souls into its depths. The realm of Darkness. 

* * *

Sora...well he didn’t awake. He hoped he didn’t, at least. It was dark. It wasn’t real. It shouldn’t be. He came to awareness. 

It felt like when in school they talked about the past. There was a sense of importance, of sanctimony. It smelled like his bed though. If he strained his ears hard enough he could hear water. But it was so far away. Was he underwater? He looked up. Dark. If he was there was no hope. A dream in slumber…

_Slumber of the Maiden, The Oldest of the Fairy Tales, The First Hope._

White birds flew out from under him, revealing a stained glass window as green as the leaves of the paopu fruit, almost familiar but not quite. 

A much more familiar voice, a friend from his darkest moments spoke up: So much to do

Another: So little time

A brief silence. A slap of the heart. 

The first voice says “Take your time, don’t be afraid.” The second voice, a bit miffed, responds with an almost taunting “The door is still shut! Step forward, or can you not even do that!”

Sora paid them little mind. He was much more fascinated by the heart pulsing below him. There's a sadness to her...at least the dwarves are by her side, and the spirit of the forest. He’s sure those give her much more privacy then the two bickering voices in the back. Soon, the pedestals raise, and the three tools of a wielder appear. 

The Shield, the first and eternal mission of the keyblade wielders, the duty to Protect. Sora didn’t much care about duty however, but the ability to protect one's friends is nice. 

The Staff, the manifestation of Power, the burden of the keyblade wielders, the truth unique to them, and the truths that lie among the worlds. To Sora, he knew the importance of truth, but didn’t quite get why it had power?

The Sword, a reminder of the terrible deeds, and the oath of each keyblade to defeat the heartless, to drain them, to take them into the light for they must. Sora cared not for the quest of destruction, and yet the sword still called for him. 

And he made the choice not made in a long time. 

He chose all three. 

The voices stopped arguing for a second, to congratulate him. 

The Keyblade of Light begrudgingly accepted the choice. 

* * *

  
  


Ah, I seem to have not seen you before. My apologies, how rude of me as the caretaker not to notice you. Here, sit down and let me tell you a story. 

Long ago, before darkness had a life, there was a form that walked across the land. Darkness. They were not bound to the realm like the hearts that fell to darkness, and myths swirled around them. They say that she was a general in a great war fought at the birth of her realm. They say that he traveled the world, losing self and form by the orders of a black box as foreboding as his realm. They didn’t know of course, that they were simply Darkness. He spread it like a plague, the fledgeling lands falling under his thumb like dolls, houses of cheaply made accessories. 

They say that he stood at daybreak, saw the light that occupied it, and snuffed it out in the Red Night. They claim that the realm of darkness became so stuffed with shadows that its forms could enter the rest of the people, until a Wizard made creatures and released them upon that realm, binding it to dreams, forming a Realm of Sleep. They say that a Mechanist, pursuing a way to predict the disasters, to measure them and save the people, created a realm of beings with no hearts, of souls and minds existing in a cold state, a Realm of Data. I personally believe that the collective memories probably made their own realm, but I am a simple tavern owner, what do I know. Soon, the realm of light and darkness began to touch without the interference of People. Twilight, Dawn, Dusk. A realm of inbetween, and in a fine line between, they claim there is a mountain where all feelings fade, where the body fades in an instant, where the Soul becomes Nothing. 

But still the Light stayed together. 

* * *

  
  


Snow White’s stained glass window fled, seperating into birds once again. (Sora wondered how he knew that name. He had never seen her face before...and yet he felt a deeper connection.) The next window of midnight purples framed a face with hope and dreams. Sora, being as young as he was, recognized it. 

_Dreams are a wish the heart makes. Her dreams would remain pure, crystal clear, no selfishness clouding her heart._

He walks forward tentatively. The last platform felt safe...but this one…there's something off about it. 

Its not safe. 

The shadows nodded in agreement. 

The shadows spread from the edges, from Sora’s feet, and for a few seconds, theres only a gripping fear. What can he do. The shadows will take him. Is this the end of the dream? But it feels real. 

He doesn’t want to find out what happens when you die in sleep. 

The First voice, playfully, calls out “You’ve gained the power to Fight! There’s no need to be afraid, come on!”

And suddenly there was a staff in sora’s hand, and it flashes with a light. The bugs around him burn away, and suddenly he can breathe again. Did he do that? Is this his power? He turns to the heartless, the staff turning into a shield, he rammed into the enemies. They piled up even away from the shield, a wall of pressure pushing them into a pile. The sword in his hands pushed down. This was his dream. He was in control. 

For how long. 

“BEHIND YOU!” In two clashing voices, too similar to be normal. 

Sora jumped, the claws aimed for his heart clawing at his leg instead, a dark scar forming, the veins popping in purples and black, hurting much more than any splinter from the play island. He aims the Rod, spinning it until the head flies off, the rod fading, transforming into a terminal. Sora, not knowing what this transformation is, types in it, hoping something happens. The dream seemed to bend, swallowing the shadow whole, then tossing it to the other shadows, bouncing between them like a ping pong ball. 

He smiles. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all. Its kinda...fun, learning what he can do. Riku won’t be able to stop him. 

A cheeky smile. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Oh, are you new here? I’m afraid my memory isn’t quite what it used to be, or perhaps the old tales are true, ehehehe. Speaking off…

Soon after Darkness left, for a reason no one quite knows, the age of fairy tales had begun to start. I believe its the darkness that began to grow in people’s hearts, like the legendary wrath of the queen in red, or the insidious envy of the gray lady. 

They claim that the Seven Great Darknesses of Fairy Tales each had a princess they tormented, purified of shadow through the magic of fairy tales. I never really believed that, too pretty. But I wasn’t there, wouldn’t have survived the cataclysm that ended it. But thats a story for another time, ain’t it?

I know that many worlds were nearly torn asunder from the darkness of a few hearts, that the light began to fight back with a ferociousness that consumed many. Husks of Light began to be quite common place, knights that fought against whiffs of darkness. They never got there before the end of the tale, and yet always manages to stop another one from coming. They were ruthless, wielding tools that scrubbed any darkness from the hearts of folk, that travel between lands broke down. There was no courage to cross their borders, for everyone had a spot of darkness in their hearts. And that meant becoming a husk at the border. First the merchants avoided them, for to be a merchant was to have at least a stiff peak of whipped greed, then the royals, for their soldiers had seen tragedies. The children were the only ones that crossed, and so the stories that they passed along were the only way to know whats happening to the land. 

They say that the wielders of light also spread some news, but it was never useful. Boasts of how much darkness had been squashed. They say that the children had a rhyme,

“Realm of Darkness holds the light,

For nowhere else is there a fight”

But who knows. Stories can’t be trusted, you know?

* * *

  
  


Sora walked down a stairway of glass. He wondered why the hearts of Cinderella and Snow White pulsed so slowly, so scared. He had barely known them for a dream, but he couldn’t help it. After the first heart they held in it it became normal to feel the pulse of life in people. It helped him know when to tell his mom he broke the dishes, and when to sweep it away to keep his mom from crying about being alone. It told him that kairi was still alive after falling. 

He didn’t know what it told him about Riku, but it was very loud. 

He hopes it doesn’t hurt him. 

He tried to help once, but Riku simply shied away. 

The next glass station was pink, and it felt...wispy. Uncertain. Like the future wasn’t set in stone. But they beat with much more strength. They were safe. They were fine. Suddenly, three figures rose from the pink, rising on pedestals of wood, swirling above the darkness. The tree looked familiar, like the one from the play island. 

Sora grinned, and became as approximately a monkey as I can describe, and even more so. A wild child at heart, swinging up branches and trying to get to the top. 

He was always good about reaching towards the sky. It felt safe. 

The top had three childhood friends, and yet. 

The faces were blank. 

Glassy. 

Empty. 

There was no faces on them. 

They hung limply. 

They were a dream. 

He was still alone. 

The girl, blankly, with a voice as hollow as the darkness that used to be around them. 

“What's most important to you.”

Sora couldn’t speak. He could think but they didn’t come out. He...he had to say something. He knew, didn’t he? 

“My Friendships, yeah! I want to be able to make as many as I can, because that's what's important to me!”

Why was he so confident. 

He was filled with doubt. 

He was filled with fear. 

And yet the answer came out like it was rehearsed. 

The girl fades to water, falling into the land below the wood. 

The Tall figure asks

“What's you most prized possession”

This time it echos, as if the size of the body wasn’t filled in

As if there was nothing inside. 

  
  


“To see what I can of the world! There are people willing to be friends that are out there, who are sad and scared, and I want to help them!”

Images of two princesses he had seen already come to his mind. 

He hoped the sand that fell in the wind understood that. 

There was only one form left. 

The fighter. 

“What are you so afraid of.”

It sounded like something that Tidus would say. 

But it was haunting. 

It wasn’t him. 

It had only the appearance of spunk. 

“Of getting old! When I’m old I won’t be able to think like I once was, and my precious memories might fade away, and I don’t want that! I want to remember”

The world faded to wind. 

He was falling. 

He couldn’t breathe. 

He was gonna wake up any second. 

He was gonna wake up. 

Please. 

* * *

  
  
  


Ah, its dark out stranger. Come in, come in, it's dangerous to be out in a dark storm. 

I can tell you a story of a dark storm that ravaged the lands, breaking the Realm of Light into worlds. 

They say there was a cataclysm, started by the overwhelming light of the Realm. 

_Sora’s shadow grows, grows into a form too large much too large oh god whats he going to do how can he defeat it._

No one knows the details. At least no one you want to know. Everyone who saw it went a little bit mad. The heirs to the keyblade legacy claim that there was a darkness so monumental, so immense, that their steps consumed as many hearts as any army could. The princesses, using the powers of their light, took as many people as they could, gathering them in a bunker of impenetrable glass, of dreams and whims and joys and sorrows and heartbreak and bonds. 

They couldn’t save them all. 

_Sora could no longer access the tools of dream. Why? Was it the fear? Was it the hopelessness? Was he not the one who should have been in this realm? Was it Riku? Was he destined to fail? Or was it his choices?_

_A third voice calls out, gentle and kind: Worry not, Sora. I have chosen you. “Go out, and save the World’s of Light. Reach out, and I will always be there.”_

_“You are the Wielder of Light. I hope you do not disappoint me.”_

_A key appeared in his hand._

They say that there was a storm that lasted for a week, every day a new face appearing at the side of the box. There were eyes more crazed than any we imagine. Our friends, our family, they hit the box the first day. They were coated with darkness, clouds of it that surrounded them. We had no wielders inside. We could not save them. But they could not come in, the princesses would not allow them even if our sorrows grew. The kids started sharing fairy tales to keep themselves happy, laughing at the jokes they put in. I remember a blue man acting as a projector for some of their stories. They were the only reason the darkness was tolerable. 

_Reality was quite heavy in dreams, Sora found out. The keyblade swung sluggishly, it didn’t move like the light of the staff, or the blade, or the shield. It moved like a slug, taking all his strength to do an overhead swing._

_And the glass rang when he missed._

_It glowed._

_The shadow man didn’t like that._

_Sora swung in defense of himself._

_The swing didn’t feel different._

_The hand didn’t seem to be there anymore._

_The keyblade hit the ground again. The light was even brighter this time._

The days passed on, but soon the adults began retelling the fairy tales as well, telling each other little jokes about the lands. The second day was when the scratches were the loudest. They were so angry...but we could at least laugh the second day. 

Soon, the darkness became smarter. By the third day, it tried to eat the shelter whole. Jokes about the belly of the whale were common, until the darkness faded, leaving nothing behind. In the storm, Nothing also raged, expanding itself into a realm where no light and no darkness could be. We saw the border of it, and while the darkness scares me...nothing haunts me. There's something about silence. It gets to you. Even the greatest darkness has life. It exists. 

_Sora was gaining on the Giant, the darkness moving like putty to avoid the key. If only he had the strength to put some skill to the swings, maybe he would have already won._

_After losing its hand, the wings on the Form grew, grew and grew and grew until they could lift the form far away, and in its lack of hearts, he gathered the darkness, the pain from the hand. A fire that consumed light flew from it, flying slowly, burning away the light emanating from the form of the sleeping beauty. Sora swung at the fire, and a few runes on the keyblade lit up. The third voice whispered: pure, and he said it aloud. The keyblade rang as a rose of light returned to the Giant. The runes kept glowing, each dark flame returning to its master, wrapping him in the Roses of Aurora. Briars binding him. He dove to the platform, crashing and removing the roses from him._

_There was an anger in the yellow that wasn’t there before._

  
  


The fourth day was one of the best. They may not tell you this, but merchants are aware of their greed. We all respected them back in the day, for they would gather the crystals hidden away in the worlds and avoid the borders to allow us to have them for warmth, for science. The shadows did not know this, and appealed to their greed with clinking coins. We made jokes about a dragon, with merchants telling us about the different gems and where to find them, not wanting the knowledge to be lost. They told us of the wonders of the world, and the cultures they had seen. Soon people began to talk about their homes. The princesses smiled in their ring, happy that they were protecting what matters. 

People. 

_The darkness has spawned swarths of shadows, shaping them with the darkness inside of themselves, forming soldiers of darkness._

_Sora was learning how the keyblade wanted to be swung. It was really quite hard. It had a very specific way that it wanted to be used, and those swings felt as light as a feather, making the next hit possible. With the kingdom key, it was almost a dance. It was a keyblade of great import, and was to be used that way. Sometimes, he swung it just right and a blast of light would emerge from the end, putting a slash in the body of darkside._

_The dream would end soon. But it would end on his terms._

The fifth day, they teased us. They made it seem like it was the real world again. But we could still hear the lightning. We could feel the darkness. No one came out. The next day they tried to turn us to darkness. No one came out. The last day there was quiet. There was a form, a man. He said that anyone who felt they could match the might of darkness, come outside. No one did. 

The 8th day, there was no shape. There was only a black space. Then the kids started talking about stars. God I remember how happy they were that stars were appearing. None of us saw them...until we did. And suddenly there was so much light...and we settled down. 

What's your name anyways, Stranger?

_Sora was alone._

**Ah, I’m sure you remember the name, actually. My first name.**

**Luxu.**

_The darkness was still there. Eating him._

I-I… please don’t kill me…..

**You remember too much. You really should be more careful with your stories, old man. But I have to give props for the performance, one of the best I’ve seen. Shame it’ll be your last one.**

Y-you know the world’s truth will fall apart, especially with the stars! I-I only remember because its already breaking…

_He couldn’t breathe._

**Ah, thats what makes this ingenious! I check people’s memories of the cataclysm just as they won’t be able to come back, because the cycles of the world are finally breaking down. You’ll probably come back next time anyways, won’t you? Just without your memories.**

Y-you and I-I both know that-thats not how it works!

**Ah, you don’t know?**

**Im not the guy who knows time. Just space.**

_He couldn’t see._

**Welp, thats one geezer down. Shame this world will fall apart, couldn’t help but like it. Had a nice smell. Best drinks in 3 systems.**

_He couldn’t hear._

_He couldn’t wake up._

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! If you liked, please remember to give kudos or comments, its highly appreciated!


	2. Destiny’s Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Destiny Islands had many stories about them, the great sea surrounding them leading to the abyss of the worlds around them, and some say that its sea even led to the forgotten worlds that no one had seen in anything but fairy tales. Of course, that was most of the worlds, but the rumors stood. People claimed the sands were golden because among the grains of sand there were grains of destiny that grew into fruit as golden as the bonds it could create. Sorcerers claimed its seashells could bind fate with only 5 shells, and some said that there would emerge a king with a crown made of gold, who brings the world to a peace eternal. 
> 
> Wonder who that could be.

Sora woke up with a choking sound, laying down. He looked up at the stars. The other kids said that they disappeared during the day, but he could hear them. They beat like hearts, if not a bit slower. And if you could hear them, it wasn’t so hard to look past the light to see them. It had been harder to hear for the last month, getting quieter. He had been meaning to ask Selphie, knowing she kept at least a few star maps (he was not a scorpio he was a Sora damnit) that maybe she would know. He had fallen asleep high in the treehouse, away so that kairi couldn’t wake him up as easily. He knew they were supposed to work on the raft, but he wasn’t really feeling it...Riku seemed to be desperate to make it though. He had never been able to lift a log with just one arm last month. 

Things had been changing quickly these last few days. Riku seemed desperate to leave the island, and Sora didn’t quite understand. I mean, if they left, who knows when they would come back? Especially without the other three kids. Even Kairi is on probation in Riku’s eyes, and his heart beats so heavily these days. He thought about rejecting the raft every day, but the feeling of the salt in his hair brought a smile to his face, and he wanted to be Captain. Nothing wrong with that. 

Kairi seemed to notice. She was always good talking to people. Sora could get people to like him, but they always saw him as just a kid. Kairi gets the adults to talk to her, to tell her why she can’t break the rules, so that Sora can technically make it so that he didn’t break any of them. The Banana Debacle a few years back made Riku’s Parent so mad… good memories. 

Then a rock hit Sora square in the forehead. 

“Hey, aren’t you going to help with the raft? Or do you need another rock to get through your thick skull?”

Ah. Riku. Kairi wasn’t far behind, giggling to herself as she saw Sora’s puppy dog eyes. “Why’d you have to go and do that! I was just watching the waves!” came out of Sora’s mouth before he had thought, as natural as the rivalry between the two.

“Well maybe its because the other lazybones still bothered to help out at least! You just slept in a treehouse” The tongue sticking out only helped to stoke the fire for Sora, already standing up and dusting off the wood dust. “Please, I was the one who got most of the materials ready, AND I’ll be the captain Mr. Hypocrite!”

“Oh, you did most of the work? Who carried all the logs after the storm huh?”

“Who was it that stitched together a sail so that we would have to, as a silver brained genius suggested, row out to space?”

“Just because you’re a worse rower than me doesn’t mean we couldn’t pull it off, just have some vision”

“Riku how much food do you think it would take to last that long???”

“I just need you and I could keep rowing for days”

“Riku I-“

Kairi, stepping up, gets in between the boys, who had been gradually getting up in between each other's chest, mainly Sora really, forcing them to step apart from each other. “Now, Now, I think we forget the real captain of this ship, who bought the materials AND planned the Raft. Honestly, Riku is so focused on Sora I can’t help but feel forgotten sometimes, honestly!” A little smile graced her lips, shaking her head as she shrugged “Why don’t we just make the ship a democracy?”

She should have known before saying anything that wasn’t gonna happen. She quietly resigned herself to the inevitability. She looked at the window, seeing Tidus looking starry eyed, and realized she wasn’t even going to participate in the race, was she. She would be stuck talking Tidus out of crashing the race, although she didn’t really want to be captain. But still, someone had to pick up on Riku’s hints, because Sora sure couldn’t, that lovable, dense, dense oaf. 

* * *

They went to the orchard behind the shack where the coconuts grew and sometimes they practiced mountain climbing, racing each other all the time. Before anyone else arrived, Riku pulled out a Paopu Fruit, shaking it in front of Sora. “How about a secret bet, Sora? Whoever wins gets to share this Paopu fruit with whoever we want, huh?” 

“And we also get to be captain?”

“Yeah, of course! Do you take the deal?”

“Yeah sure!”

Riku smiled, and Sora smiled back. 

Of course, this was the last race between the two fastest kids on the island before they went off to sea, so the rest of the kids gathered around to watch the two rivals best friends one sided crush disaster gay and oblivious boy. It was a frequent topic of discussion among the kids what the category actually was. 

Plus it was fun to make Riku squirm, not that he did recently. He just got angry, the jerk. So on the day if the race to be captain, everyone was rooting for Sora, especially Kairi, who did not look forward to Riku’s smug grin on the raft. He wouldn’t even say anything and it would be SO. ANNOYING. 

Kairi sat at the referee’s tower, watching the boys line at the beginning on the broken bridge, ribbing each other. “Bet you won’t get past the bridge, fall on your butt and lose!” “Bet you’ll try to use the rope and fall halfway through like last time!” “You can’t even climb a tree Riku” “Sora your feet are so big that you could walk up walls through friction” “ITS ON”

They all giggled at the standard warfare, which always devolved to Sora’s shoes at some point, and the reactions were golden. Wakka, who took up the role of the starter, sent them off as soon as those last words left Sora’s lips, sprinting off the bridge in near perfect sync, Riku’s legs giving him an advantage. They diverted at the referee’s tower, Sora smiling cheekily as he climbed the shoddy tower in record time, Riku shaking his head cockily, before yelling out loud “You know that trying to show off will only slow you down don’t you Sora!” Sora, of course, did not care, for he knew Riku was wrong, but this next part needed his full attention, having practiced it in secret since the earlier mentioned fall for just such an occasion as this. He flipped off the zipline, smiling at Riku as he briefly paused, all the other kids cackling as they saw him wink at them, falling into the leaves of the trees and next to no rustling. Tidus was the first to catch the glints of movement behind the rustling, and began to cheer Sora on. Riku, however, was taking the long way around near the sea, laughing as he thought Sora was falling, unable to see the rustling from the ground. Of course, when Sora emerges from the leaves and taps the star tree when Riku is just getting to climbing the rocks, and does a face at him, he is so surprised he trips the next fall, forcing him back. 

Riku, with much more speed than before, runs towards the star tree, ready to go for the mad dash to the finish line. Sora, swinging from branch to branch next to the cliff, gave Riku the stink eye on the final flip before coming back to land, tongue stuck out. Of course, he fell on his head, allowing Riku to regain some of the lost lead. Sora recovered quickly though, and went past the falling bridge, and landing on the ground, before being startled by Kairi’s yell. 

“Sora’S DECLARED CAPTAIN!”

Afterwhich Sora sees her look off into the distance. Maybe he will ask her afterwards. Everyone went off to their own groups, and Riku, almost like a shadow, emerged with the paopu in hand. A little bit had been torn off, probably from the sprint at the end, or maybe the trip. 

Sora didn’t give it a second thought. 

“Nice work! Here, have the paopu...who you gonna share it with? Maybe...kairi?”

“No one!” Sora says with as cheesy a smile as ever. 

Riku is speechless for a second, but then he gets his wits back, and asks “Why’d you bet it then?”

“Dunno. You wanted it. I’m going to keep all my friendships through my own actions! Even is destiny wants to pull us apart, I’ll be the glue holding my friends together! 

Or something like that. Its a bit cheesy” Sora leans against an invisible wall, smiling. 

Riku shakes his head, unbelieving of the claim. “You’ll just give it to Kairi in secret no?”

Sora laughs, before throwing the Paopu out to sea. 

“See! I hold to my beliefs. See you!”

Riku couldn’t quite believe what he had just seen. 

Sora, on the other hand, was too busy going after Kairi, having run off somewhere without even talking to them!

* * *

  
  
  


He found Kairi inside the secret spot staring at the door. Riku always said the door smelled like home. Sora and Kairi tried not to think too deeply into that. Kairi said that she could see something very bright inside, along with darkness. 

Sora just heard the sounds of the wind and sea and sand. It wouldn’t be as scary if the door didn’t lead deep inside. Neither Kairi nor Sora enjoyed being around it, to Sora it felt private. Riku simply did not care enough, often trying to impress Sora somewhere else. He didn’t like the quiet moments. Maybe the thoughts got too loud. Kari was silent as he entered, a drawing stone in hand, and so he started. 

“Whatcha doing there? Planning a last piece before leaving?”

“Sora, does the door...sound different?”

“Kairi you know I try to ignore it, it's not a sound we’re meant to hear”

“Please, Sora, just...just do it for me. One last thing before we leave.”

And so with a sigh, he listened. And he heard...not the outside, the sounds of the beach, but rather…

Scraping. A frantic, drastic sound that accelerated the more he listened to it. It didn’t seem to come from the door itself, but from around it. There was a beating, a hunger in the scraping. Sora leapt away from the door, not wanting to be there, the sounds fading as they weren’t there yet. 

He was safe. For now. 

“There’s something inside. It wants out.”

Kairi sat down. She looked like she did when she talked to adults, or settled an argument. There was a maturity there, a cool disposition even in the face of problems. Honestly, he was glad to be her friend, even if he was probably one of the sillier ones. 

“We should chain it up. Maybe we can lock them away before they emerge. It’ll be fun! I’ll talk so you don’t have to hear them.”

That...sounded like a pretty good idea actually. “Sure, thanks for accommodating the sound, hehe” He grabbed one of the drawing rocks, beginning to chisel it out chains from the floor, sitting cross legged while kairi was standing. “How’d you know there was something going on?”

“The light was weak. I just assumed there was darkness as well.”

Chip. Chip. 

“Are you ready for tomorrow, Sora?”

“I dunno...we’ll be able to come back later anyways, right? So it doesn’t really matter, we’ll come back to our friends eventually!”

“Do you think Riku would be satisfied with just leaving?”

“Riku’s never satisfied. He’d just dream up a bigger, crazier scheme. It's what makes him so cool.”

“You’re the only one who still thinks Riku is cool.”

“Hey! I respect the silver hair! Unless it's insulting Santa Claus then I don’t respect it.”

A giggle couldn’t help but emerge from Kairi’s mouth. 

“Come on, Riku isn’t all that cool! Admit it! I know you want to!”

“Fine, Fine, he’s not all that, he might be a bit funny watching him forcefully recline in the shadows on a beach, but he pulls it off!”

They laugh together. Smiling, they make the first lock as their chains meet. 

“Sora, I’ve been wondering: would you mind if its just you and me on the boat. Exploring. Ready to come home soon. No need to keep going. Just...relaxing.”

“Well, assuming Riku still got his trip...I’d be happy. I just want to enjoy the world, not any of that ‘figuring out my purpose why we are stuck on these islands’ Riku goes on about. I'm happy with these islands. Everyone knows me, I can make them laugh. As long as I have my friends, I’ll be satisfied.”

A snort. “Don’t you think thats just a bit cheesy? If my friends are around I’ll be happy?”

“Hey, its true! Don’t act like you’d be happy if you were suddenly forced to abandon Selphie against your will!”

“That’s different! Thats the bond of sisterhood, not stinky friendship! We are blood sisters, not just casual friends!”

Kairi laughed at that inside joke. Sora looked confused. He was confused, but he didn’t want to admit it, so he started to laugh awkwardly. 

“Come on, just a few more chains and we’ll have this door shut!”

Sora went through chipping more of the stone, before asking Kairi: “Are you really ready to go away? Maybe forever?”

Chip. Chip. Chip. 

Kairi stayed silent for a long time. Eventually she stopped hitting the rock. Then she said quietly. 

“Memories.”

And Sora understood. Ever since they were children, whenever Kairi said Memories, it was understood by everyone that it was one of those things you don’t try to distract her from. For Kairi, there was always a fear. A fear that before she fell she was a different person. Yeah she was 4, but that's a third of her life. It could happen again. Every day, for an hour in the morning, she tried to get them back, and yet they never worked. She thought, maybe she could get them back. Maybe she could explore and Riku in his reckless race would reach them. 

But these weren’t thoughts to be spoken. 

These were thoughts to clog the air, letting them hang in the air silencing the chips of the stone. 

“Hey, Sora. I'm glad we made friends with each other. Even if everything goes wrong. It will have been worth it to know you.”

“I could say the same for you. Except the falling out of the sky I dunno I could have done without it. Gave me a fright, let me tell you, seeing you floating in the water, barely hearing a heartbeat”

And they smiled. The world was alright. 

Kairi left first, smiling at Sora before leaving the twilight cave. 

A cold metal presence rang out behind Sora. 

**Lock it.**

**You know how.**

And Sora touched the chains they had drawn on the door, and whispered the word lock, almost in a trance. A ghost of a key appeared in his hand. The chains rang in his ears, before he ran out to catch one last person before the boats left. 

Like always, she was sitting down at the edge of the Docks. 

* * *

  
  


Sora sits down beside Selphie, knowing not to distract her as she figures out the way back to the main island. She had always been better at figuring out the stars than the rest of them, but then again that might just be because she remembered the old legends better than the rest of them. Sora could never keep them straight even before he started to tell the stars apart by sound. It was easier to distinguish between buzzes and waves than it was between light and location, not that Selphie believed him. However, she had recently begun learning to use them to navigate the waters, leading the children with Wakka or Riku rowing for her. Sora usually took the back, since he was the best at following the rest, with kairi or wakka rowing. In the middle was Tidus rowing for the days when kairi and Riku wanted to take a break. The only reason they couldn’t take the boats out to sea was because of these three, really. 

Anyways, Selphie was the one to pop Sora out of the reminiscence about the past, turning to his as soon as she determined the location- “What do you want, Sora? Did you accidentally confuse me with kairi? Hehe”

Sora, a bit embarrassed, shook his head quickly, “No, No nothing like that. I was looking to talk to you. I wanted to ask you, how do you find your way to the main island every night anyways? I always figured it was something to do with the stars, but I wasn’t sure”

“Is this about that raft you’re making with Riku and Kairi for you to propose to one of them?” A grin.

“Wh-what?!? No! No why would I propose to them?!?! I’m friends with all of you guys too!”

“You know its not the same with us. Why do you think Tidus is so desperate to hang out with you and Riku? He wants to be part of a group, especially since we are all going to leave him in middle school next year.”

“Oh, yes wise Selphie, Oracle of the stars, please tell me how every-“ She elbows him with a laugh. 

“Come on, don’t be so dramatic, astrology isn’t being an Oracle”

“Wel you always mention her so I figured that you must be one no?”

They laugh together, seeing the stars shine as the sun sets orange. Selphie spoke up first. 

“But seriously, this is about the raft, right? You want to know how to reach the end of the world or whatever Riku’s gotten in his head you guys will find, right?”

“Yeah. And also, so we can find our way back home!”

“You realize you guys aren’t coming back right?” Saying this, Selphie shrank, curling up her legs. “You’ll either die lost at sea, or you’ll reach the end of the world and never come back to see us. That’s how its always been.”

“Is this another star thing? Is the Indigo Star dominant on our journey with a Yellow recessive and Wizard arc?”

“Sora it's not a joke! You know the story. About the guy with hair of silver who left the islands to explore the outside world and never came back! How do you think he sounded, nervous?”

“But he was alone, wasn’t he? Riku won’t be alone, he has me, and Kairi too! Kairi’s real good at stopping him from going too far.”

“Sora we’re just kids, he was an adult by the time he left.”

“We’ll be fine. If we know to navigate, that is.”

A smug smirk appears on his face, and selphie sighs. Sora was always stubborn enough to win anyways. 

“Ok, so you’ll need to focus on two stars: The Eye of the Oracle, that orange one right there”-to Sora, it sounded quieter than the other stars, with a heartbeat almost like steps-“and that Blue Star, Triton’s Crystal or Leviathan’s Eye depending on who you ask.” - the star that sounded like waves and water currents. At least it was familiar -“Personally, I see leviathan, but ev-im sorry im going off track. The Eye is always facing true South, and with it you just need a secant to decide where you want to go. And the Trident will always begin to fade when a storm approaches. Something about water vapor obstructing that wavelength of light. Keep an eye on it. As soon as it begins to flicker, head to a course 110 degrees to the right of the Eye, it will lead to the current that leads to the scavenging isle, and people will find you.”

“Thanks!” Sora stared off for a second, absorbing the information, before a question came to mind. 

“Do you know where the end of the world would be?”

“It might be under the yellow star, 56° ea- wait, why am I helping this! You guys are so underprepared I swear! Are you even thinking about what you’ll do if you run out of food?”

“We don’t need to worry about that! It’ll only be a week, probably! Actually, do you have a good way to measure time? Counting days seems...not a good idea at sea.”

“Hmm, well, there is one trick. See that star right there, the Witch's cup? It's the brightest in the night sky, right there. It's constantly moving once every month, you can tell by the distance from the next closest star. Here,” she puts in his hand a pendant that has a few holes in it “this will tell you how long it's been. My family makes these, and gave me one a long time ago, but I’ve learned to make my own, see?” She raises one around her neck.

Sora, testing it out, raises it to where Selphie had pointed it. Soon, light projects onto the ground from the crystal inside the holes, forming a clock on the ground. Selphie, seeing the confusion, continued her explanation.

“See, the star is this really bright point on the circle, and every line it crosses is another day. You have to remember the line, but the star never moves so much the orientation falters…”

She falls silent for a second, then looks squarely in Sora’s eyes, a tear glistening. 

“Sora. You’re one of my closest friends. You have a family. You don’t have to do this.”

“I mean, this is what friends do for friends, right? I can’t not do it.”

“Do you think your mom will be ok with this? You’re the only family left for her, you can’t just leave.”

“We’ll be back, I promise.”

“Don’t promise things you can’t know.”

“I have a really good feeling!” And he flashed the smile that had Riku smitten, the one that takes all your sorrows and tells you, you won’t have to worry I’ll be fine. If only Selphie could trust it. “Look. By the time that the star returns to this position we’ll be here, good as new, as if we had never left! I promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that promise. A month. Else I will hit you so hard with my jump rope you won’t even know if it was a dream.”

A laugh, quieter this time, between the two of them. 

“Yeah. Its a promise.”

Riku stomped down the pier, as loud as ever. Sora and Selphie shared a knowing look, exactly like when they are paired up in school, and in unison look at Riku and say “Whats up?”

“Hey, Sora, I hope you aren’t thinking about inviting another person to the raft, I barely even let Kairi on, you know!” He smiles. He thinks it's comforting but it feels empty. He turns to Selphie, all cold in those cyan eyes: “This trip isn’t for you.”

Selphie looks at Sora, and he sent back a knowing look. Then came in Wakka, all smiles and looming over even Riku’s head “Ah, is the mun bothering you, bro and Selph? I can help in ridding a pest,” followed by a smile. He was goading Riku, and he took the bait. 

“Sora would never think I’m a pest, I’m great, I’m sure of it! Maybe he doesn’t need a guy who can’t even use a sword.”

“Ever so violent, you should check that out my mun! Don’t want to accidentally throw a punch against someone who can defend himself, no?” Wakka proceeded to grab all of Riku, holding his arms down, before putting him on his shoulder “Its time to leave soon, today I’ll be rowing Selphie.” Riku angrily attempts to break free, muttering “i can row perfectly fine put me down i swear to god i will beat you up” and other such blithe takes. The three still standing on the docks laughed at the normally stuck up kid’s outburst, and lit by one lantern, they rowed back. 

The Moon was almost completely dark tonight.

Given. Not as dark as the next night. 

The Blue Star dimmed as they rowed, and vanished by the time they got home. 

* * *

  
Sora’s Mom was one of the kindest hearts Sora could hear. 

There was always a peace next to such a strong, soft heartbeat. The outside always got quieter, the normally loud sounds of the city falling away when they were together. 

They were the only family the other had. His mom said some time ago, she had two children, twins, who disappeared when some horrible person came to the islands. She says they played with Sora when he was very little, that he was the only reason one of them could get up in the morning. They were happy. At least she was. She couldn’t go looking for them, for she had another light to keep. Sora had always been able to bring her tears of joy with nothing but the babbles of his younger self, and the random acts of kindness the boy seemed to think were normal. 

Then again, maybe she just teared up easily. She teared up to a traced bird, for Pete's sake…

It was still on the fridge, because it just filled her heart with such happiness. 

They were happy with each other. They loved each other. Dinner was always lively, Sora’s mother sometimes even feeling like her other boys were there with her, happy. 

Like they were there, just beyond a veil that she shouldn’t lift. 

Sometimes she whispers to the veil, a sweet goodnight after Sora had drifted away, or a “you boys make me so proud looking after your little brother.”

Tonight, Sora was talking excitedly about his new trick on the Zipline, how he finally managed to do that flip into the trees, how surprised Riku was, and of course she stressed about “are you sure you’re ok Sora bear? You didn’t accidentally get your ankle twisted”

That night, Sora shuffled more than usual after being tucked in. She sat beside him, pushing his hair away from his face, and she asked him like every time he seemed so stressed. “Did something happen?”

And Sora as always didn’t want to tell her because damn it all he felt like he should carry the burden of the sky just so that the people he cared about would have a little less on their mind. 

This time, he spoke hesitantly when he relented. 

“There's something inside the secret place. Its...its hungry. I...I dunno...maybe its just the sounds I hear.”

“Sora, you know the sounds are usually right. You’ve never doubted them before, they’ve never steered you wrong. Why are you so scared of them?”

And he stayed silent, because he didn’t want to tell his mom. And so she thought up a story she heard from her grandmother long ago, about the hunger and how to keep them from bay. 

A king of a kingdom far ago, with stones of black and clouds of oil, once felt a hunger so deep, and so insatiable that he ate all the plants in his kingdom. 

Soon, he went to another kingdom with a proud king, and he ate the plants the king considered beneath them. He went to a greedy kingdom and he ate the plants the king could not have, and when the king starved he ate the plants he had as well. 

He went around to all the kingdoms, his hunger ravenous, until he reached the kingdom of a king with kindness. 

And since in every kingdom, the peasants had noticed the first plant, but no king had listened, they had been doomed. 

But this king, the kindness let him hear every word of his people, and he heard their fears. And so he sent the knights to capture this king of darkness, and because he listened, and he took action, the darkness couldn’t stop him. 

With those words of comfort, Sora drifted to sleep, three hearts beating as one. 

He liked the sounds of only his mother’s heart. 

His fear knew that they wouldn’t last. 

* * *

  
  


When he opened his eyes, he realized he was asleep. 

Maybe it was the soft blue shining below him, a familiar color that felt safe. Like he belonged here. It was comforting. He could see beacons elsewhere, green and purple and pink and yellow and midnight blue and all the colors from the dream yesterday. The less thought about that, the better. 

If he knew he was dreaming, then maybe he could control it. He held out his hand, hoping that the blue light would give him...he didn’t know, a chair? A couch? It was quite tiring to just walk around a dream without knowing what's happening. 

He started to move when he felt the waves hit his legs. 

The blue light stayed, but the ground became the...the play island. It was nice, really, watching sand and trees appear in such a comforting place. Nothing could get him here. 

That's what made the silver figure so shocking he supposed. 

Their arms and legs were swirled with gold, a long elegant dress, and the only disturbance on the smooth metal surface, being on the head, two wrinkles forming what looked like eyes. Occasionally, along the edges of the gold, a flicker of a rune emerges. Whenever this happens the lines in the metal bend in such a way that Sora can only assume they are mad. 

Is this figure like Ventus and Vanitas? No, their shape is silent. They aren’t made of sound like them. They Speak. 

“Have you forgotten me so early? I accepted you as my wielder, and you forgot me? 

_ Tragic” _

And suddenly Sora remembered a voice from the last dream. 

And a Key appeared in his hand. 

“Hmm. I admit, you are not my usual wielder, they have usually proved themselves long before I ever deign to pay attention to them. And the key is always far away in their mind. Yet to you, I am as natural as if I were a part of you. Hmm. Fascinating. And yet my form is so...dull. No wonder you struggled against a Darkside, there is barely any energy flowing through the blade. You’ll need a Wizard’s Teachings for that.”

Sora, not unused to being spoken over, struggled to understand even half the things she said. Was she insulting him? Complimenting him? Was she a fiction from the mind? The voice didn’t sound like anything he heard before, akin to metal rubbing against each other, and yet it didn’t hurt his ears. It felt grand, and elegant, Regal almost. And yet it didn’t sound human. Realizing he had lost himself ti thoughts, he refocused himself

—“And I presume you don’t even know how to read your enemies do you? Perhaps I could teach you the basics. The realm of dreams does have a more flexible time frame than my own. Here, Sora, look at me.” Sora obeyed without hesitation, knowing that the being would likely be able to leave him stranded in that...realm of dream if they so wanted. From the chest area, a new swirl of gold appeared, extending a protruded arm towards Sora, a cold feeling quickly swallowed as it held him by the chin and analyzed him. 

“Hmm...the energy is surprisingly agile, I wouldn't be surprised if he could make memories strong enough for that technique in time. There's enough practice of duels for him to get in touch with most keyblades. A very good choice, I think.” The hand pulled him forwards, forcing his eyes right in front of the face of the metal mannequin “Yes I can work with this. Sora, today you shall learn the most basic of Magics. The ability to discern truth. For all magic must be based upon truth, and then bend it from there.”

Magic? Magic was real!! Well maybe. This could just be a dream. The coldness of their touch lingered, and he couldn’t tell whether it was from the slight fear he had, or from how cold they were. He didn’t know if he could tell. But onto more important matters, HE KNEW SANTA WAS REAL IF MAGIC IS REAL SANTA IS TOO TAKE THAT Riku YOU STINKY DUMMY!! Ha!

Wait. 

HE WAS GOING TO LEARN MAGIC!!! THIS WAS THE BEST. DAY. EVER!! Was he going to do those cool breathing exercises the elders did back in town?? Or maybe he’ll get to read some books and get some cool words he can say dramatically!!! He looked on with starry eyes, looking at the Metallic Regent, ready to start. 

“Now, we’ll start with form. As soon as we can enter our dance, you’ll be able to feel your energy I expect, pushing out of the blade naturally. And from there, you’ll know where it is, and can begin to thread it through the Key. It will take, oh, an hour or so of ceaseless repetition? It should be fine, and plus. You’re dancing with the light. It should be fun.”

Sora can’t see it. But there's a smile there he can’t see. He wishes he didn’t know that. 

The being raised their hand, the sand swirling as a ball of light appears at the end of their hand, casting away the familiar winds and the comforting light that was the islands, replacing them with a field as alien to Sora as the form they took, plants of geometric perfection formed of harsh yellow light, a field cleared around Sora and the form, flat and hard like rock but near translucent, and Sora could see the stars through the rock, auroras connecting every star into a highway. Sora was fascinated, and stared at it until the cold touch of metal reached his neck minutes later, and he remembered what he was here for. The Being then began to make sounds that Sora couldn’t quite place, completely foreign to him except for one instrument that he heard, one of the traditional instruments on the island. A song of ages passed by, not that Sora realized that. And then he felt the cold of the metal, and suddenly they were right next to him. A single word. “Dance.”

And Sora obeyed. He moved guided by the metal form, a terror gripping his muscles tight and clipping his motions at first, finding no place to let his hands rest on the metal, constantly bending around his grasp. The metal stayed silent in this waltz, withholding its judgements until after the waltz. Slowly, Sora untensed, the muscles relaxing in this dance, getting used to the movements of metals. Soon, they began to move on the floor, stepping in unison on the starry floor, the stars rising from the floor as they moved, decorating the already hypnotizing arena. The speed increased as Sora went through the movements, moving in increasingly sharp motions as the waltz began to add more instruments, becoming more triumphant with each repeated chorus, as Sora spins, and suddenly there is no metal, and there is only the keyblade, warm and pulsing. But the dance continues, the heavy weight of the keyblade fading into dream, feeling as natural as an extension of his arm. 

As Sora spins and slashes and turns with it, the keyblade shimmers into another form, and another, and another. The being gazes as the Kingdom Key slowly bends and smooths, at first runes appearing upon the silver, shimmering. Soon, light solidified around the curves it had formed, as the runes began to float off into the air around it. At the end, the keyblade had kept the iconic teeth, and yet there was as much light in patterns surrounding the warped metal that shot out beams of concentrated light, as it was metal infused with the truth of realms. Sora was surrounded by arcs of light in a state of peace, focused on the steps that he had done. 

And then everything paused. The changes faded, and the light fell like a light shower (Sora sneezed as it hit his nose) and the world faded back to the calm blue, with the metal being levitating in the same pose it had always been in front of Sora, unmoving. 

“Quicker than expected. Truly, I was wise in accepting your call rather than that other boys. Now, that energy you felt flowing through you, allow it to flow through my form. Allow it to fuse you with the keyblade, to let you begin the dance you did together within this dream. Perhaps in the real world I may not be able to reach it yet, to begin the dance in this realm of dream necessary.

Allow us to seal the deal, Wielder of the Keyblade of Light, Guardian of the Realm of Light, protector of the World’s In Between, Surveyor of Dreams and Keeper of Data, do you Accept my Blessings and Power into your own, and allow yourself to become a Knight fighting for the betterment of others?”

And Sora, still a bit dazzled by the show of light and color that had just occurred, realized what he was trying to perceive in the dance. And he realized he could do it by himself. The blue light solidified, showing his face. From Sora, a ring with that same blue light, centered upon the crown he wore on his necklace extended from his hand, and took the metal forms hand.

He felt more whole all of a sudden. 

He could finally understand the voices hidden within hearts. 

He found the name of this being, and was quite confused. 

The Kingdom Key. 

However, it was time to wake up. 

Unlike the last dream, he did. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Riku smiled as the stars clouded over. 

“And he won’t get hurt, right?”

A bound heart spoke in a voice deeper than the darkest night above them. 

“He will be fine. Perhaps lost, but you will be able to find him, no?”

“Of course. He’s the one most precious to me. I will find him no matter what.”

“Then we seal the deal. Shake my hand, and you will find other worlds by tomorrow.”

In the darkness, it wasn’t possible to see the other hand. However, when Riku shook it, he couldn’t help but feel like he could feel the static muscles beneath it. 

Almost like a corpse. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Riku big gay


	3. Destiny’s Awakening

When Sora woke up, it was still dark. It was a moonless night, and clouds hung over the sky, light obscured through their ominous whims. 

His room was a simple child’s room, and sora usually forgot what it looked like, but he could swear something was different. It sounded different. Was it just him, or was there a light in front of him? Like a gentle rustling of leaves. Farther away, a darker wind, one that tore the trees out of their roots. 

And for the first time, he could hear words. 

“Did he get the keyblade or not??? You keep saying ‘terra didn’t give it to him’ but thats not what I’m asking, am I!”

“I was asleep for the better part of a year! Its only because Sora’s heart could cradle ours that we are alive right now!”

“Alive my ASS wind boy!! Alive people can fucking touch shit!!! See this!! My arm goes right through the FUCKING wall!! ITS NOT FUCKING ALIVE NOW IS IT HUH”

“Don’t cuss in front of your mother”

“JUST BECAUSE YOU JUST NOW REMEMBERED HER DOESN’T MAKE US OUR MOTHER”

“She raised us after being a heartless shell, even you. I remember the faces you made with the food...we were like babies.”

“WHY COULDN’T YOU REMEMBER THE FUCKING WAR ITS LESS EMBARASSING THAN THIS SHIT”

“I told you its coming along!”

Sora, not wanting to have them accidentally wake up his (their??? Were they the missing siblings?) mother, decided to speak up to maybe quiet them. 

“Not so loud, you two, mom’s sleeping”

There was a stunned silence, their respective sounds quieting. 

He got the distinct sound of them moving. 

Then in unison, “YOU CAN HEAR US????!?!!?!?”, quickly diverging. 

“Fuck FUCK SHIT SHIT SORA NEVER REPEAT ANY WORDS I SAY I AM NOT FUCKING RUINING A PERFECTLY GOOD CHILD VENTUS WHAT THE FUCK YOU GOT THE EDUCATION IS THIS WHAT THAT FUCKING PRETENTIOUS LADY DOES THIS SHIT”

“Oh god sweet keyblade masters take me softly I’m going to have to train a child I’m not a master I don’t even have all my memories does he need to know about the war or is that top secret does he know about us didn’t Mom already know oh god what is in the water of this place”

Then a simultaneous sound of a slap, and they calmed down. 

The wind was quieting down. Sora felt it prudent to tell them that. 

“If you have anything to say, maybe say it now? You guys are kinda getting quieter. Well, your hearts. Maybe. I don’t know how this works the Key Mannequin didn’t explain very well.”

“Oh god the KEY DID THIS?? Did you ever inherit one?”

“No”

“HAHA THE KEY THINKS MY FACE IS FUCKING HOT THATS WHY THAT BITCH CAME TO SORA”

“Did the key ever say something weird?”

The storm stopped being audible. 

“She said that I was the wielder of light or something. What was the stormy guys name? Hes gone.”

“UHHH HE WAS VANITAS IM VENTUS WHAT THE SWEET KI-“

He disappeared. 

He hopes the two are ok. 

* * *

  
Sora’s mom, however, was not as amused at her son being awake at this unearthly hour, “dear lord Sora you should be resting! You are a growing boy, who needs his sleep! You’re going to grow up big and strong only if you sleep!”

And Sora, just as quickly as he was a Knight for the Realms, he was just a kid who wanted to be with his friends, with his family. The dream faded like water, a mist. Present, but ignored. And in as quiet a tone as he has ever spoken, tell his mom as she sat beside him. 

“I had a bad dream. Not a nightmare just. A bad dream.”

And Sora’s mother held his shoulder, and sang him a song her mother sung to her, and her father to the mother. 

And Sora sang it back, knowing it as well. 

It was a personal thing. 

The two could only just hear it, but two more voices sung along with them. 

And when the song ended, the two were there, hugging each other. Constants in their lives. And Sora spoke with a wavering voice. 

“What do you do when you have no idea about how to do something? When you want to help someone and they ask something you can’t give.”

And his mother put her finger to her lip, and looked off in thought. Then, exaggeratedly so she looks like she comes up with an idea, booping Sora’s nose as she says it. 

“Well, you see, if you trust them enough to make a promise with them, then you must remember that they also know your limits. If they are a friend, they know what you can’t do, and wouldn’t ask you the impossible. So then, it stands to reason that you should put as much faith in yourself as they do in you, Sora bear.”

And Sora may not have slept again, for the sun came up, and as thus it was time for breakfast, his usual smile returning to his face. 

“Thanks Mom.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


As the Sun rose higher in the sky, seeming...paler? Than usual, Sora Kairi and Riku were talking on the cliffside overlooking the sea, about anything that came to mind, and everything really. They were excited. Well, at least Riku was, climbing all over the rocks just to get some of the energy out. 

“Do you think the fishes know about the end of the World?” Kairi started a new topic, looking out at the wide sea. Riku made a sound, almost of exhaustion, and was about to retort before Sora answered earnestly, “Maybe they cross the sea of different worlds! Imagine like, fish spies, Secret Agent double o fin!”

“Thats ridiculous Sora, Kairi, of course fish don’t know. They don’t even have feelings, they are nothing more than food.”

Sora laughed it off, and Kairi decided to tease him a bit. “Thats a bit rude, don’t you think? What, are you gonna believe that just anything thats not human doesn’t have a heart?”

“Yes. Are you going to tell me this rock has feelings?”

“My pet rock! You found him!! He’s the nicest rock I have ever met!”

Sora couldn’t help it, he burst laughing as Kairi began petting the rock.

“Kairi has a point though. You can’t tell what has a heart, until you talk to them. Its best to just be as good, so that even if something doesn’t have a heart, it might still be hesitant to attack.”

“You’re soft Sora, you know that?”

“And who beats you up every other day, mister “im so strong and tough” riku sman.”

“Sman? You really don’t know that many insults do you”

And all three of the friends laughed. Because that's what they were. Friends. 

There was a shift in the earth, and suddenly Riku couldn’t keep his hold. 

Sora managed to grab him. 

He wasn’t going to let go. 

* * *

  
  


Around noon, Sora was left alone, Riku having gone to brood, or as he calls it, “Plan out the voyage beyond the stars” (he was useless at it he always just said ‘next time i’ll figure out how they connect’, coward.) and Kairi had left to get the pickled fish from the beachside shack. 

This left Sora on the upper platform, looking out at the water. His mind was back on the dream he had last night. His mom’s words lingered in his mind, but he couldn’t help feel like...like…

Like the islands in the wave of an all consuming typhoon. A small speck of dust compared to a wave too high to be able to see even a speck of the sky under the weight of the crushing sea. 

“Yo, man, you need to stop being so worried man, you’ll be fine!”

Wakka walked up behind Sora, leaning on the railing in the way Riku tries to pull off, but eventually just fails to to do and falls on the ground. Wakka was cool. He was chill. He always knew what to say, or at least it felt like it. 

“Man come on, snap out of it. You’re going on a once in a lifetime cruise to the stars and you can’t even stay in the moment man, hello! Did Riku say something weird this morning, bro?”

“No, why would he?”

“Bro, you and I have both seen him these past few weeks Man. He’s going loco, if you know what I mean”

“Come on not you too! Riku isn’t getting that weird!”

“He cackled evilly at midnight while thinking of you dude. Dunno Bro, seems weird to me.”

“First off, isn’t that just like. Gay. Second off, how do you know that?”

“A man has his instincts and his ways, and the two stay secret but true. You have the same with your, you know..” He flicks his ear. “A true bro doesn’t ask about the other Bro’s quirks.” A smile. 

Sora sighed, falling down. “Bro Code and what not. But yeah, it's not Riku, it's just.”

“Dream ladies making promises that feel too real and too big for a boy who just learned how to open a coconut without a machine?”

Sora fell over, sputtering as Wakka laughed after the sudden spasm. “Nah Bro, just kidding. But you know you can tell me anything, right?”

“I know that! It's just. What if the dream you predicted is real. Am I the right one? I’m not even that good a fighter, Riku can beat me up every day and Tidus half the time! I’m just good at monkeying around! What am I going to do, climb my way to success? And she says “oh you’re a quick learner” and other things but what does it mean!! I'm not...I'm not a hero. I'm barely a second rate friend!”

Wakka, ever used to being the quiet friend, listened with a smile as Sora kept going on about every anxiety he had, how even his mother’s words ring hollow. And then, just as placidly as he says both his jokes and his wisdom, Wakka speaks up. 

“Sounds like you are so afraid of not being enough now, that you are afraid you’ll never be enough, man. Dunno, seems like you underestimate the potential you have, man. I dunno maybe you should have confidence bro. You are going on a journey, where who knows what will happen. Of course you’ll gain strength on it.”

“Oh yeah like what, bro?”

“The ability to eat fish 29 days straight and not be at death’s door, for one.”

Sora, already laughing a little, continues with “The power to be so sunburnt that a piece of coal thinks I’m a bit too crispy”

“Maybe you’ll even meet a sea cat, have it laugh in your face as the sun keeps pummeling you.”

“Do you think applying 2 bottles of sunscreen now will make up for it?”

“Why do you think I know Bro, I’m just a surfer Man.”

And Sora accepted that. They kept joking around, and Sora for even a moment forgot about the future, able to relax in the old friendships he had. 

Before he went off to go see if Kairi was done, Wakka said as seriously as he had said anything. “Goodbye bro. We’ll be friends even if you walk off the end of the earth.”

* * *

  
  


That night, the kids rowed to the main island in silence. The weight of tomorrow kept them quiet. Wakka rowed with Sora for the first time, and Kairi with Selphie. A final goodbye of sorts. Tidus was making a last ditch effort to appeal to Riku in hushed tones that no one else could hear. To not be abandoned. They left before the sky darkened, Selphie having convinced them that it would be good to rest up. 

It was before dinner that the storm began to light up the sky, stirring and swirling, the lightning dimming. 

The air felt suffocating. 

_ The air was intoxicating.  _

The feeling of metal tightens around Sora’s heart. The Kingdom Key is pushing him forward. The other voices are arguing about blame, which Sora pushes down. He has to leave. He made a deal. 

“Sora, Dinner’s Ready!”

“Sora?”

There was only an empty window and tears in the house that night. Desperation clung to her, as no boat would take them to the island. 

Her baby. 

The hours before the end were filled with loss, spent in her child’s bed, wondering what she did wrong.   
  


* * *

As Sora went out to see, the waves got larger, all consuming, bits of wood seen in them from the docks getting destroyed in islands farther away, the storm worsening as the sounds of sirens and bunkers resounding. 

_ Release me, And let the Sea’s part for Starlight.  _

The kingdom key appeared at the helm of the small boat, fixing itself. Around Sora, the waves shrank, the large waves pausing before hitting him and sinking into the sea, a small circle of stars shining atop him, their light hitting the top of the boat even as the moon was dark. The water rises more and more, overtaking the small form of the boat, a bubble of light surrounding Sora as he keeps rowing forth. There was a peace, he supposed, in the silence beneath the sea. The pale blues giving ways to sea greens. 

He could see the metal body of the Kingdom Key. 

“Never allow darkness to obscure your sight. For you can hear the truths others don’t. Some can smell truth, some can see it. But you must remember to trust it no matter how it comes.”

A metal limb reached from the sea, grabbing onto the boat, only a ripple emerging from its weight as the boat stayed on its course. 

“As your heart grows stronger so shall I. To step brazenly into danger tells me your heart is stronger than it was in the dream.”

A lightning flash. 

The glowing eyes of the Giant Figure appears on the light of the sea, yellow eyes against the sea foam, silent. Shadows filled the wall as it spread out. 

It wasn’t real. 

“Your courage brings me so much energy. But you must remember, even in the darkest times, you must have hope. Even if your home is crumbling to darkness, you must have hope.”

Two familiar eyes cloaked in shadow. 

“But you must still try to save them. To seal the door. I will be there. For you are my chosen wielder.”

There was no body. There was only the key, runes pulsing on the silver of the body in time with Sora’s heart beat. Unlike the dreams, he knew the meaning. They were part of his heart now, afterall. The inner strength he gathered. The light for his friends. 

The water lowered as he reached the beach. 

He walked out, the key fading to sparkles as he reached the shore. 

The clouds began to culminate into a pinprick, like a galaxy slowly getting sucked into its black hole. 

Sora walked onto the rising sand, winds whipping them away from the ground and swirling to the very black hole above them, three boats getting swept away in the waves. 

The door! Maybe the sounds escaped and caused this!

He has the Key, he might still be able to lock it!

The sand whips higher and higher. 

Sora couldn’t hear hearts anymore.

He approached the base of the tree, and a grand door of silver and ivory replaced that secret hole. It was seamlessly connected to the stone, veins of silver emerging from the stone behind, the vines having paled to ivory, glass, the roots looking like ribs from some living being. As Sora pressed his hand to the door, it opened before an unearthly wind ripped them away, crushing the intricate metal and ivory into a husk and dusk, echoing inside the chamber. 

He could hear the claws of the being inside. Except now they weren’t scratching towards him. 

They were seeking something else. 

He ran inside, hoping to god the chains were holding. 

* * *

The corridor seemed so long, every turn after another, he swore there were less. 

The ivy that once grew in was ripped from the walls, stray roots being all that remained, rocks occasionally flying by Sora’s head, crumbling to dust as they slammed to the walls. 

As he entered, he saw Kairi. He heard her heartbeat as he saw her. She turned to him, and Sora could not forget what he saw. 

The eyes, blank as they could be. They stared into his soul, and one word came out. 

“S-Sora….”

The wind exploded out, the chains on the door rattling, sending Kairi plummeting towards Sora. He tried to catch her, but she disappeared. 

He felt her. 

He heard her. 

She was real. 

Then why couldn’t he save her…

“Boy….what are you doing here?”

A voice appeared from the same sounds of clawing and scratching and hunger that were around him in shadows. 

Wait. 

Did shadows always have eyes?

Formless beings emerged from the shadow, bending the darkness to cloak their form, not quite fully formed, half merged with the walls around him. 

These Shadows were only held at bay by the presence of the voice, a dark figure cloaked in shadows different from the moving ones. They were dressed in a thick burlap cloak, dirty and ratty, seemingly falling apart into darkness. However, two bindings are distinct from the darkness, seemingly holding the amalgam of cloth and shadow into place, silver chains interspersed into belts across the upper half of the form. 

Sora turned to look at the old man, the shock of whatever happened to Kairi getting to him. A scream of anger, followed by “WHAT’D YOU DO TO KAIRI!”

“You would not understand, for you do not know. He who knows nothing understands even less.”

“What do you know, you’re just a potato sack!”

“Your impotence betrays your naivetë, Boy. Please, move out of the way. I must release the darkness. It is my duty. My desire. I’m sure you understand.”

“No! I locked it with good reason!”

“Those drawings? Please, they are a mere child’s game. You may have found some magic in these rocks, but they aren’t a keyblade’s lock. I still have a shadow of my former power.”

“You want a keyblade’s locks? How about this!”

In a move of pure instinct, he summoned the keyblade, and pointed it at the chains he had drawn. As he did, the kingdom key’s runes pulsed with energy much stronger, and chains of pure white fell around the wooden door, suddenly pulled down by gravity as they come to existence. 

“What?? You were not the one chosen by the keyblade, you should not have inherited it! It was that little brat who should have had it, I had dealt with it!”

A wave of burlap, and a wind picked up, pushing Sora away. Before flying off, the last thing he saw was the man break the chains with one move of his hand, and the door splintering, falling into a deep chasm. He could hear the World’s Heartbeat. He could hear the shadows reaching it. 

* * *

Crashing into the walls, Sora went numb. 

Kairi was gone? His world was dying?

The keyblade clattered against the ground, stiff metal clattering against the sand, against the rocks, against the world itself, a clear tone. 

The sand cleared. 

Maybe it was because there was no more for the winds to take. 

The sea no longer lingered in his nose like it should, great spires of water rising to the great swirling darkness above Sora. 

And he was alone. 

He was too late. 

The shadows had crawled around Sora, heads fusing into one another, arms antennas and legs twitching and wiggling as Sora slowly fell. 

A heartbeat, troubled. 

Heavy. 

Riku. 

Sora reached out for the keyblade, the metal pulsing as the runes glow, and Sora begins running past fading scenery, stones being pulled apart, the sounds of roots being torn, planks being broken and ripped from each other. 

Sora couldn’t hear anything except the pounding sounds of another person’s heart. 

Riku’s heart. 

He could save at least one person. 

He wasn’t going to let go of everyone he knew. 

The land cried as shacks and fishes and everything broke apart, but Sora could see the Island, linked only by a bridge to the main islands. 

He could see Riku. 

Yellow is a very notable color in the end of the world. 

The Darkness swirled against the one thing that wasn’t being consumed in the whirlwind, Riku’s eyes unfocused as they looked up at the black hole, a smile serenely on his face. 

Riku muttered to the darkness around him, “beautiful. Sublime. Sora, don’t you think this is beautiful? The darkness, destroying all the unnecessary clunk, the trash trapping us in one world! We’ll be free! Able to leave and explore the stars, together!”

And yet he never looked at Sora’s eyes. 

He seemed to be too fascinated by the darkness around him. 

“Come Sora. We can see the worlds together. All alone.

We will rule the stars. 

I’ll make sure of it.”

  
  


“Riku you’re STUPID!”

“Sora, think about it! Stop thinking with your heart and realize our potential!”

“Riku, our home is being destroyed!! How can you worry about anything else!”

“I forgot you were so attached to these things. Come on, aren’t I enough Sora”

“Kairi’s DEAD Riku! I saw her fade!”

And that finally shook Riku. 

Or maybe it was the rising darkness around his feet. 

His hand stretched out from his ring if darkness, wisps of it rising around him. 

“Join me Sora. So someone who understands your pain can be with you.”

And Sora tried to reach him, tried to get past the swirling darkness, his hand struggling to reach him. 

Lightning Struck. 

Sora couldn’t couldn’t save him. 

* * *

  
As the last bits of the world fell apart, no trace of the sea, or the other islands, just a single pedestal of land amidst a growing darkness, a shadow stepped up. 

He holds out his hand, and the wind stops. 

Sora could hear the name of the heartless, its beating heart. 

Darkside. 

He didn’t know if it was rage, or grief, or revenge in the scream, but he swung the keyblade anyways, the Darkside jumping before falling onto the island with a grace belying its massive body. 

**B R E A K**

There's something dreamlike about being surrounded by darkness. The shadows feel deeper, like they could absorb you at any moment. He could hear the darkness swirling inside the Darkside, could hear when he would pummel the ground, destroying yet another inch, another crumb of the land, when the darkness was set on fire in the empty heart. 

He could hear the shadows watching, waiting to take his heart, chittering and cackling and crackling and skittering, creatures that took his home. 

Did one of them kill his mother?

Was one of them responsible for Kairi?

Did one of them kill Selphie?

Wakka?

Tidus?

Riku?

Was the man in the Brown Bag in there, laughing at the child who couldn’t even save his home?

The Darkside moved away, away from the land and crossed its arms. 

**A T T A C K, M Y A R M Y O F S H A D O W S**

And the shadows did, deformed husks of darkness rising from the ground, claws tipped with darkness that was almost liquid. 

And Sora continued the dance of the keyblade, the runes sometimes flaring and sending a beam of light across the shadows, burning them from the inside out. And yet they kept emerging from the shadows. 

Somewhere along the dance, he began seeing the metal figure from his dreams, the arms now decorated with the runes, and the shape less human, bending and moving. 

_ Transform the keyblade, Sora, and unleash my potential.  _

Sora grabbed the end of the kingdom key, splitting it in half, two equal curves forming as the gold guard broke, spinning around his arms as the metal shifted, sharpening and flattening, becoming twin boomerangs. 

_ Not Twin Boomerangs. Their name is Flying Blades.  _

Runes decorated the edge of the boomerangs, and as Sora swung the two blades, a set of metal released from the edge with the same runes inscribed on them, returning to Sora at a later part of his dance. He could feel the weight of the metal, watching his every move. A missed step and the flying steel would hit him just as it flew through these shadows. His eyes were locked on the Darkside however, to the figure who led this charge. 

He released one of the blades, and watched it swirl in the air, as it hit the darkside’s chest. 

He could see the gash. And so he kept dancing, letting metal fly and throwing these blades against the giant form, standing his ground. 

The last memory of Destiny Islands. 

The wind’s eventually returned, as the Darkside lost the power to keep it under control. 

He didn’t know how long he was spinning, sending them out. 

How many shadows were destroyed he did not know. 

The sands became golden again, and yet the mass kept shrinking. 

Soon Sora was alone in the End of the World. 

Except for the Darkside, who was charging the last of its darkness into its hole. 

It faded as it shot Sora with one last ball of dark fire. 

Both of the blades were thrown, spinning and meeting it in midair. 

And Sora screamed, in some vain hope of healing his land. 

“PURIFY!”

The blades gleamed with the light from the runes, and cut through the ball of dark fire, and for a moment, there was Light. 

And Sora could feel the sea breeze for just that moment. 

There was only one thing left that had been built by people, Sora realized. 

Just one trace of everyone I knew. 

And he cried. 

There was just one bit of wood. 

One bit of woodwork, planks hammered together for the tree house was all that’s left. 

The kingdom key faded into glitter, and the darkness roared. 

It was too late. 

The only reason Sora fought was...was because he needed to die fighting, he guessed. 

He needed to feel like it wasn’t in vain. 

Before he could finish grieving, the wind began to pick him up. 

He held on. 

  
  


He didn’t want to be forgotten. 

  
  
  
  


There wasn’t anything left to hold onto. 

  
  
  
  
  


He disappeared into darkness. 

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  
  
  


A mage and a soldier watched the sky at night in the streets of Dusk. 

“Another Star went out. Do you know which one it was?”

“Well Gawrsh, I think that's one of the lanes of fate?”

“One without a narrative truth? Seems the king was right. There’s someone leading the heartless to keyholes. Come on ya big palooka lets see if we can find the key before another star dies in vain.”


	4. District Dreaming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They say there's a world that the darkness could not consume the heart of, because there is none. While there is no world devoid of heart, there is a world which has no denizens of its own, a home for the homeless, the place at which all roads end. Adventurers cross this place often, finding it acting as the edge of worlds. However, those that choose to live here have their worlds drenched in darkness and destruction, and will never be able to return without a miracle. 
> 
> Thankfully, there's a king and servants working to bring a miracle.

Sora woke up surrounded by dim lights, and for a second wondered if he woke up just early enough to see the sun rise. 

“What do you mean you can feel the darkness outside these walls! No- VANITAS DON’T YOU DARE LEAVE OUR BROTHER ALONE HERE”

“He won’t notice us anyways. Last time was a fluke and you know it!”

“Half of this world is dreaming I wouldn’t be surprised if he could see us this time!”

“The other half is barely surviving against Darkness I doubt they will overlap two let two pwetty widdle heawts be seen.”

“Wait, shh shh shh i think he’s waking up”

Contrary to what Sora thought S-he was Vanitas, wasn’t he?- would do, he shut up. 

The memories came rushing in. His Mom. His Friends. Riku. Kairi. The Storm.

He stood up in a rush, his head throbbing, and leaning on some crates immediately afterwards, stumbling as his head felt light.

“What happened?!?!?”

A face he didn’t recognize appeared next to him. 

“Breathe, come on, you can do it. Breathe with me, alright?”

“Where are my friends my family please I need to find them I”

“Breathe. Come on, it’ll help you feel better don’t you think?”

There was something about the smile that came with those words that let Sora have a moment. 

Breathe. 

He takes a moment, and focuses on his heartbeat. 

He’s alive. He can keep going. 

**He’s alone.**

It's fine! 

He can keep going! He’ll find the rest of them. 

He has to. 

He can’t be alone. 

He breathed out. 

Starting to process what he could see, it comforted him in a way, the candlelit bricks below the night sky, the sound of a far away clock leading his breaths. 

He was fine. 

He focused on the two people around him, hearing their hearts. 

They were the Wind and Storm, from the morning. The golden glow of the candles made out a shape, and he could almost make out a face. Whenever he focused, he could see a part, but it faded when he tried to see the full face. 

“Come on Venny, get out of his face. Or are you going to kiss him, you weirdo.”

The other body was similarly blurry, somehow blending into the soft night sky, a void of stars, dimming them as he passed. And yet Sora could see the emotions flowing like blood, and there was a body. There was form, but it couldn’t be perceived. 

However, Sora knew at least one thing. 

He had someone to talk to!

“So, how was it that he could see us again? I want to know when I can be invisible to prank you again. I had a perfect bucket of slime ready too…”

“When the border between Sleep and Light falters, like when there’s a large amount of darkness, when the world’s dreaming, when someone uses the power of waking. It's not that hard.”

“Eh, I’ll still forget it, just so you have someone to explain it to so you feel like Aqua taught you something.”

There was an impression of a tongue sticking out at that moment. 

Sora couldn’t help but laugh. 

They really felt like siblings. 

How long have they been together? 

The light flickered from passing movement, and Sora huddled in shadows, not wanting to be seen. 

* * *

  
  


Donald Duck was a rather prudent Duck he thought. He was a duck on a mission, he would make sure that the worlds would be sorted out. He brought Star Charts for navigation, dusts and powders for tracking the darkness, a charm to see the dangers in the pathways, and clothes and charms for transformation to disguise their forms in plain sight. What he did NOT calculate for is Goofy. 

Who had put his jacket in the washer. 

Ruining the materials, unless, in an economy that had been plunged into more darkness than the worlds, he could find a Hungry Shard to cast the spell to reverse time with. While the moogle furnace was down. Without being able to visit the vast majority of remaining worlds because their Order was Strict. 

One could say Donald was angry, and they wouldn’t be very wrong. 

Goofy, on the other hand, had not noticed, and knew of a good place to find them, in his opinion. He always found them around the Croquet Court in Wonderland, and he had an invitation forged a long time ago to teach his little Maxy sports!

So when he brought it up, in what he thought was polite tone, it went something like this:

“Well, Donald, I’ve been asking myself, why don’t we go to Wonderland? I’m overdue to visit the fish duke you know”

“Because you RUINED OUR CHARMS so that world’s denizens don’t notice your empty dog head or my fresh feathery behind”

“Well I never take one to Wonderland and I never get caught. Or do I?”

“You don’t because I make sure Max SNEAKS one on you through the triplets. You know how hard it is to convince Louie to do anything without money???”

“Well Donald, I still don’t think that its very necessary, Wonderland has sentient animals there, don’t it?”

“BUT WE AREN’T FROM THERE NOW ARE WE YOU DOG FOR BRAINS! As outsiders, we also have to appear indistinguishable from the others in every way, else the narrative of the world won’t be able to withstand new players! Even Jiminy would be too much for most worlds without the spell! Do you understand!!!”

Jiminy popped out from whatever poor pocket he was in, not that anyone noticed him, appearing on Donald’s shoulder. “Now, Donald, please calm down, we don’t want to attract any heartless, do we? I still haven’t figured out the emblem heartless that are in this town, and a Red Nocturne could come and take your rage for Magic, remember!”

“OH BUGGER OFF JIMINY I’LL FREEZE THEM THAT'S WHAT”

He sighed. Jiminy may be the foremost user of scan, able to analyze whole worlds and heartless in a minute, but it feels like no one listened to him. Only ever checked his journal at the last minute to figure out what weaknesses the heartless had. It was tiring, really. Sometimes he wished he had someone who listened to him, but he was a conscience! He would stick with these people to the end!

While he was busy self monologuing, Donald had continued a tirade against goofy, “AND BEFORE YOU SAY “well gawrsh must the world border be maintained” ITS WORLD ORDER AND YES!! WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW THESE WORLDS CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT THE WORLD ORDER AND NOW THAT IT'S BREAKING WE CAN’T MESS IT UP EVEN MORE YOU BIG PALOOKA”

“Well I don’t much care for that tone of voice, especially since we’re looking for a key, and you probably scared it halfway to Milwaukee!”

Due to the sheer level of violence, the response has been removed for your pleasure. We will read the key parts now. 

“I am not your spawn, friend and comrade Goofy, I am my own adult duck you wonderful person...It is in fact the consequence of your actions that we are in this situation...the cost of these transactions will be great.”

Fellow residents of Traverse Town moved away, except for one man, scared of this temper, that ran to another district. This man is Dave. He’s important in a bit, don’t forget him. 

* * *

  
Unaware of the violence, Sora decides its probably a good time to meet with the two voices in his head that seem to care about him. Sitting down, Pluto, taking the opportunity granted by Donald’s outrage to run off again, had managed to find him, and in the trance of new information, blindly petted him. 

Ventus was kindly providing the information that had Sora so blindly petting a dog, with occasional commentary from Vanitas, sprawled somewhere behind Sora on the crates behind his back. 

“Now, first, and most importantly, the world you knew is just one. And it died. I think. I’m not familiar with this strain of enemy. Eraqus said he fought something like them a long time ago, but they were a projection unable to do anything. The worlds were too young to have life or hearts, so they say some remnants of calamity formed, something about an eye feeding the darkness form and thought. I wasn’t very sure. But he said the yellow eyes are a key tell of these dark beings. At least in the stories. 

“Probably just trying to make Xehanort sound ugly so he doesn’t remember his crush on him.”

“I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOU THINKING ABOUT MASTER ERAQUS FUCKING THE MAN WHO TRIED TO MURDER ME MY FATHER WHO TRIED TO MURDER ME IS BETTER THAN THAT”

Sora felt it relevant to interject: “If he murdered you is he that good a father to remember?”

“HAHA He has my face and wits Ventus, I’m proud of this boy, I can train him to be as quick with insulting your past as I am!”

“Please have some manners. Please Sora. I can’t handle another Vanitas. 

“JOIN THE DARK SIDE OF PRANKERY!! WE SHALL RULE THE COSMOS”

“Why are you two with me anyways?”

“Well that's later in the story if Vanitas lets me explain hearts!”

“You don’t know SHIT about hearts Ventus don’t lie.”

“I mean I know SOMETHING don’t I! I was able to take yours into Sora and look at us, conscious and not dying!”

“That was luck and you know it!”

“FINE OK I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING now let me tell Sora about how we first met! I’m sure he already forgot about the voice in his dreams when he was 4-“

“YOU WERE THAT VOICE??? That was the first time I could hear what no one else did. I always just assumed it was like. Hearing puberty.”

“He remembers???? Hearing puberty?? I-I- You know what its not important, we’ll talk about this later. Anyways, you let me into your heart, I stole the keys, and took myself in. Since Vanitas was part of my heart at the time, he came in, and got...more complete?”

“I was able to not cry for 24 hours straight and that's an achievement!”

There was the sound of finger guns. There was also an exasperated sigh from Ventus. 

“So now we live in your heart! I think? Honestly I had no idea a heart could house another heart so I’m very suspicious. Do you feel anything from it?”

“Nope!”

A side glance. 

“Well, I guess its fine. We should get out and look around the place I guess. I’m not entirely sure, I never went on life changing journeys alone at your age. Vanitas?”

“I was born 3 years older than he is now. I was a 17 year old baby Ventus. No I never did anything like this.”

“We don’t have a murder mystery either…”

Sora was increasingly concerned for the two voices, casually mentioning things that didn’t sound as good. While the two were discussing their shared hurt, he went out into the streets. 

The shadows robbed a lot from places like these, it turned out. 

The first thing Sora noticed was the Stars, perfectly bright, twinkling and shining like they never did in Destiny Islands. 

It was like the stars of every season were there at once. There was only one thing that was different: A ring of stars all forming a near perfect circle. Sora didn’t really know what was up with that, but it looked cool. He suddenly saw that star that was so bright, and remembered. He made a promise to come back. He…

He couldn’t, could he. 

There was nowhere to go back to. 

He would be lost long before he could ever find it. 

The pain felt dulled by the dim light, the orange glow of candles and the slight fluorescence of old signs kept the horrible realization at bay. 

Maybe he could start over. 

He had new friends. 

Maybe the weight would get lighter over time. 

Maybe he wouldn’t feel like crying so much. 

Ventus came out, and began running around, fascinated with the appearance of the world, paying attention to every brick, looking at the crooked streetlights with as wide eyed amazement as he can imagine. 

Sora wishes that could be him. 

It's a bit too recent. 

He only walks around fascinated, eventually getting distracted with the candles. Everytime he blows them out, they relight! How cool is that!

Eventually, Vanitas gets the other child, and coughs as loud as an apparition can to get Sora’s attention. 

“AHEM-Maybe you should find an adult, since apparently neither of you know what to do in a new world. Fucking newbies. Didn’t you go on a world tour ventus?”

“Only one city! There was also an amusement park, however no cities of soft lights! Radiant Garden couldn’t be more different from this place, all mosaics and squares! This place bends to look like home it-“

“A nerds a nerd all right. Let's check out the accessory shop, maybe then you’ll geek out about something we can actually buy.”

“I’m sorry how can you be so casual about a place this beautiful! Did Xehanort take you to Le Monde de Louvre? Did he say ‘yes child let us see all the arts they are made by people better than you now CRY’ or did he just have you steal them to graduate from the academy of villainy?”

Sora ignored the two, his mind focused on the sounds of hearts. 

It was almost silent. 

The realization had taken a minute, but when the distractions faded, it was all that was left. 

The realization that something was wrong. 

He could only hear one heart for now, maybe only one was strong enough to be heard over the storm outside the walls. 

From the Accessory Shop came the heartbeat. 

He walked in. 

The place was fascinating, mostly empty display cases, admittedly with very plush velvets, and a depression where there was once gems. The back of the store had a scene of a night sky, however it was dark, many small depressions where there were presumably gems being ripped out, and the model trees were empty, hanging with loose strings.

“Wel-Aye, its just a kid. Did your parents leave ya, or are ya new to this place?”

“I’m new, a-and I’m not just a kid!”

“Oh yeah? So then what are ya, a rat?”

“W-well ok maybe I am a kid but not JUST a kid ok! I’m Sora!”

“Well then, Sora. Welcome to Traverse Town, please find the currency exchange building over in the third district to fucken GET SOME MUNNY BEFORE YOU ENTER THE SHOP WHERE YOU SPEND IT”

It seemed that it wasn’t the first time it had happened. However, by some miracle, Destiny Islands actually did use Munny. Pulling out his allowance, he counted all 100 of the munny he got for his birthday. 

Cid scoffed at the paltry sum, before sighing. 

“Really think I’d have gotten ya tricked. Thing is, there's been a shortage of materials, so even if you had munny I couldn’t give you anything worth buying. Moogles have been struggling to get anything more than a sliver, not even any shards, and the Stores are out in the damn darkness and probably nothing but a dream at this damn point! And the post office is out of service so we can’t even order it from the sister locations if they haven’t shut down and I swear if I figure out the heartless in charge of this I’ll take their scrawny neck AND SQUEEZE ‘TI- oh right, you’re still here. Have a look around, you might be able to find someone else from your world if you try hard enough. Scram! Git!”

Even as he left, he could feel the sadness in his heart, and the lack of intention. 

He smiled as he left. 

Maybe he could make a new family.   
  


* * *

Donald was struggling to get down the ladder, his webbed feet slipping around the rungs and almost falling onto the floor multiple times. His mood was already through the floor, and Goofy’s optimism wasn’t what he needed. Then the Moogle’s were out of business, because they were only going to be able to restart the furnace with shards that Donald didn’t have because he needed the coffee pot in the mornings more than this damn quest. 

They had recommended dealing with Cid, as he still had a few shards from his Gummi Excavations, at least according to the moogles. Goofy had almost dragged Donald down the stairs, arriving as the doors closed from the last customer. Good. This was going to get loud. 

There was one thing Donald learned from his uncle, and that's the art of negotiation. 

“What’che looking for?”

The store clerk was a bit raggedy, his clothes clearly fading from age. Donald was getting more peeved, as the owner didn’t even bother to watch the store all the time, this world was in perpetual nighttime couldn’t he be awake the ONE time he would have customers?

“Can you call the owner of the store? We need some of the premium stock, stuff you wouldn’t have access to.”

The toothpick snapped in his mouth, but his expression was like stone, icy. 

“I’m the owner. What’che need?”

“We must be at the wrong store then. No store with any shards now would have someone as tattered as you.”

“Well sad to say, you’re  _ majesty _ , but I’m the only one who still has any materials. Now stop complaining, or I’ll have to kick you out of the store.”

Goofy could feel the tension increasing as the two stared at each other. Donald spoke. 

“A hungry shard. Do you or do you not have one?”

“You know those little shits are rare even when we aren’t in a fucking recession, what did you expect!?!?”

“I dunno, the fucking ACCESSORY guy to have some FUCKING accessories, or maybe I’m just an incorrigible QUACK”

“You’re a quack alright!! A quack in some fucking luck, for I happen to have met a white mushroom in Deep Jungle!!”

“Oh, let me guess, you walked in and almost broke the fucking world order didn’t you? And now this QUACK will have to take that hungry shard just to make sure the world DOESN’T FUCKING BREAK”

“What do you take me for, a fucking goofy ass motherfucker? I am a fucking professional unlike you, you little bitch! You know what! Just to spite you, I’ll give it for a fucking spirit stone! A fucking fair trade if you ask me!”

“You know the pots have been fucking consumed by darkness, professional my ASS! I just so happen to have 2 so you can FUCKING TAKE THEM BECAUSE I AM A GENEROUS FUCKING PATRON!!”

“GREAT, WONDERFUL, NOW FUCK OFF, HERE’S YOUR SHARD!”

The two men had gotten increasingly closer during that interaction, until they had been bill to nose. They both reached into their stock, and slapped down the items on the counter. While Donald's stones had left the counter singed, the air energy residing within the stones of spirit was heating up Donald’s magic, while Cid left a dent in the wood, the hungry shard bending around his hand in a more liquid form. 

“ARE YOU TRYING TO SCAM ME? A SHARD SHOULD NOT BE THAT LIQUID”

“You know as well as I do that quality is decreasing. The magic in it is exactly the same, its just unable to keep the structure for any accessory making. Pitiful, really. Might have even been able to be made into a tranquility shard if we had the damn machine running. 

“How about a test. If it's truly a Hungry Shard, it should eat some wild magic no? Let me just...”

Donald waved his feathered hands over the stone, completely focused on the embers beginning to emerge from his shifting fingers. They were absorbed into the goo, and it shifted slightly. He glared. 

“Let me guess, you don’t even have a fucking vial do you!?!?”

“I can’t very well make a fucking innert vial without the furnace and you know that!”

Goofy pulls out one from under his hat, interested in keeping donald from committing murder. 

They grumble at each other, and leave the store. Bitch. 

* * *

  
  


Sora left the Item Shop, and found the two V’s (he couldn’t think of a more clever name but it fit them.) 

“Ah yes, I am so culture-oh hey, Sora! When did you leave?”

“Aw, venny boo doesn’t want his Sora-Wora to leave him. How CUTE! Come on, let's keep going. Don’t want Sora to explore the town more than we are! He’s a little bitch who doesn’t have the experience!”

“Hey! I heard that! I am Sora, nothing else!”

“Catch me then!”

The vanitas outline then jumped up to the accessory shop roof, running off into the second district. Sora followed as best he could, going up the stairs to the side. Ventus just sort of, hovered his way through. As Sora opened the doors, he paused, unsure of what he was seeing. 

He didn’t really want to believe it. 

They didn’t sound the same. 

Yellow eyes in a clattering armor looked back. 

Just like the Shadows. 

Just like the Darkside. 

They focused their eyes on their previous prey, the 6 Soldiers surrounding Dave. 

He was so scared. 

His heart shivered and shaked like it would shatter any minute. 

Sora couldn’t move. The Soldiers were uninterested just yet. 

They ripped through the flesh, claws seemingly dissolving it as they lunged through the man’s body, pulling out the clattering heart. 

The Body began to loosen, turning gaunt, bending in unshapely ways, desperate to get the heart back. 

The Soldier smacks it on an emblem, emblazoned on its shape almost as defining as the armor. 

The heart shattered, a black bile and red...almost blood releasing from the crystal shards. 

The Soldiers began clawing at each other, desperate for the liquid. The Emblems began glowing with a sinister light as the liquid was spread all around, almost plunging the world around it in a deeper darkness from which only that red heart could be seen. 

The sound of the shattering shivering hearts still held out. 

The black bile fell to the ground, and crystallized into an emblem. 

The body, already folded inside out, the face no longer able to be seen, limped. It deflated, leaving an unrecognizable shred of a man. 

It faded into dust, and scattered into the wind. 

The emblem was still shaking, still so afraid. It began to ring more hollow, almost metallic, a helmet shaking out of the emblem. 

They clattered to the ground, liquid welling in the helmet, pitch black as it poured down, blowing up a suit of armor like its a balloon, clattering and shaking. 

There are no eyes, but sora can feel it staring as it stabbed metal stubs into its eyes, some crimson liquid leaking from the clattering shape. 

As it pulls away, hands dripping with what seems like blood emerges, and two holes are left. Two yellow eyes. 

He will never be safe from those eyes. 

A different handle appears in his hands, a heavier shape than the Kingdom Key. 

He slams it as hard as he can on the head of the nearest Soldier. 

Their head caves in, the dented armor leaking the black fluid as the skin deflated. 

The hands were still lumpy even as Sora went against more. 

Shattering echoed as the sounds of Sora smashing the crystal Emblem resounded. 

Some of the bodies faded into darkness, however they sometimes left colorful rocks instead of shattered emblems, or there was a skin suit that was left. 

The Keyblade was as cold as Sora’s realization that he will never be safe. Soldiers begin emerging from shops, fascinated by the sound the Metal Chocobo makes. 

_ Switch to me.  _

The keyblade in his hand shifted to the familiar grip, and Sora calmed down. 

He can do something. 

Maybe he can even get those Regal Blades or whatever. 

He grabs the end, and it peeled away smoothly, turning into the blades as he spun them around like a baton, shooting an initial ring of light that cleared a distance. 

He found that the blades homed in on the nearest heartless, and yet they couldn’t go too far, not even down to the bottom of the alley anymore. 

Maybe it's because he is so inexperienced. 

His heart could barely see his future like it once did after all. 

The Dance, disturbed by the new keyblade, returns as it once did, almost a ribbon dance as the blades were thrown and cast. 

Ventus acts as a cool breeze once the battle ends, Sora exhausted like he never was before. 

He summons the new keyblade, Metal Chocobo, a keyblade as cold as his loneliness. 

He could get new keyblades?

He was not excited for the next time he slept. 

He felt stronger though. 

Not sure if it mattered anymore. 

He wasn’t ready to fight for eternity. 

He grabs the loose skins of the heartless, their stretchy skin folding easily, and the small slivers of crystals, some yellow and crackling, some pulsing repetitively, some almost as dark as he remembered the emblem, and some giving him a sense of strength. That he can fight. 

“What the fuck. Vanitas? Did the unversed ever do something like this?”

The voice shook, afraid. 

Ventus may have seen worse things in the war, but a heart being stolen was a sight never meant to be seen. 

Darkness lived in secrecy. 

Maybe some things were never meant to come to light. 

Vanitas was unable to speak. 

_ Now you see the truth of the Deal.  _

He staggered back to the first district. Away from the horrible nature of the heartless.   
  


* * *

  
  


Goofy was a bit confused as Donald kept muttering about something or other. 

Shouldn’t they be on the Gummiship by now? Seems a bit rude to keep waiting, the stars might collapse at any moment. 

Given, he also knew Donald was about to destroy the next direction that disturbed him, and he wasn’t particularly inclined to help speed that along. 

Until they got to the third district. 

“Uhhh, isn’t the Gummyship the other way Donald? Am I lost?”

His Shield got hotter than he’d like after that. 

“WE’RE LOOKING FOR LEON YOU BIG PALOOKA OR DID YOU FORGET THE LETTER ALREADY!”

There was a Soldier that got destroyed after that. The ground still sparked with lightning even as the darkness faded.

A hand touches Goofy’s Back, and a voice filled with mirth. 

“I’m guessing you two are the kings men, no? He said to look out for flashes of lightning, but I didn’t expect quite as sharp a bolt.”

“Well, Gawrsh, guess that means you don’t know us. I’m Goofy, and thats Donald. Don’t bother him he’s steeeaaaming. Do ya need something?”

“I’m with Leon”

“Wel why didn’t you say so before! Just let me handle handle Donald, and why don’t ya take us to him!”

“Sounds like a plan! But...how are you gonna deal with him? Do you need some help?”

“I can handle a wild child don’t you worry! Maybe stand a bit back, things, uhhh,

This might get messy”

Aerith began walking towards the hotel, and did not look back. 

She didn’t want to know what the sounds were. 

At least they are having fun. 

* * *

“Ventus, why didn’t Eraqus tell you about the fucking eye stabbing???? The fucking eye stabbing feels like a top 10 lessons for any child, I don’t know maybe its just me. Sora, are you good? Would you, oh, I don’t know, have liked a warning????”

“I don’t know Vanitas, maybe he didn’t see them? Maybe he didn’t want to scar his children? And don’t get Sora involved he’s barely handling it, give him a moment!”

“We saw a man. Stab. His fucking EYES. AND ATTACK US WITH THE BLOOD OF THOSE EYES.”

“Can you please be quiet...we saw a man die. He...he doesn’t deserve to be forgotten so quick.”

“Oh, boo hoo, people had no time to mourn in the war, we-”

“Vanitas. We aren’t in the war anymore. We aren’t child soldiers. Rest, we don’t need to know about your PTSD and how seeing just one death isn’t enough. Give the dead a moment of silence at least.”

Vanitas didn’t respond. 

Someone else did. 

“If you can’t even handle one person losing their heart, maybe I should take that keyblade from you. I’m sure you don’t even understand what it’s worth.”

There was a clicking from the silver weapon he brandished. 

His face was illuminated as he shot a bullet of pure fire, the scar on his face glowering in the sudden light. 

Sora took the flame, not hot enough to cause lasting damage but enough sting, unable to dodge. 

“The movement skills of a slug. You’ll probably be unable to even summon a keyblade.”

“Who are you! And what do you know anyways!”

“Names Leon. And I know more than you do.”

Suddenly, he leaped into the air, the silver blade of his weapon reflecting the soft homely light in its arc towards Sora’s Head. 

Sora managed to block with Metal Chocobo, the thick metal of the keyblade ringing out, absorbing the light in contrast to the silver Gunblade. 

“Better than I thought. Plain keyblade though, maybe because you lack experience. Maybe because you aren’t worth the effort of prettying up.”

The blades were pushing against each other, sparks flying, before Leon pulled the trigger. 

Sora, attempting to dodge, moved to the side, letting the gunblade hit the ground before slamming the fire with the keyblade, the embers disappearing into the coldness of Metal Chocobo. Hoping to surprise Leon, he swung again, attempting to hit Leon in the ribs. 

He hit. He could feel the flesh budge under the keyblade. 

He wasn’t sure he was ready to fight another person for a long time. 

While Leon recovered his breath, Sora jumped up on the stair railing, sliding away from Leon hoping that maybe he can switch keyblades. Maybe. How did he do it last time? The keyblade told him so he did, but it isn’t working this time!

Leon shot a few barrages of fire at Sora, slowly approaching him. 

“Running away won’t do you much good. You’re gonna have to deal with the fact you can’t wield the keyblade eventually. Give up.”

It was tiring, returning the fire. Metal Chocobo was so much heavier than the kingdom key, it was exhausting. Admittedly the swings packed more of a punch, but he didn’t know the tempo. He may still be clumsy, but he knew how the kingdom key danced. Metal Chocobo was unknown. And right now, not knowing how it swung was dangerous. 

Case in point, when Leon jumped again, and this time went around Sora’s block, hitting him on the side with the flat of the blade like a bat. However, Sora heard the click of the trigger as it hit him. 

He was thrown to the side, and his side felt like it burnt. He could smell something being toasted. He looked at the place where it hit. 

“Hey! No fair, who said you could set your blade on fire!” came out from Sora’s mouth as he patted the singed clothes.

“We are in a war. Anything’s fair to save people.”

“Well you’re not saving me, so are you really saving people?”

“A sacrifice for the many is acceptable.”

Sora gulped. Distance, distance…

Desummoning Metal Chocobo, he ran, hoping to reach the roof of the accessory shop by jumping on those barrels. He’d be safer up there, maybe finally figuring out how to swap between blades. He could see Leon before he hit them, and make a quick getaway. 

Vanitas, who had been silent so far, seemed to almost want to shake him. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU IDIOT BEAT THAT LITTLE BITCH UP WITH THE KEYBLADE NOT WHATEVER THIS IS!!”

“Come on Vanitas, he has to be thinking with his head! Give him a few seconds we weren’t this good when we started, give him encouragement!”

“Whoo? Go Sora run away?”

“Yeah like that! Yeah Go Go Run Away like the wind Sora!!”

“I hate you so much wind boy.”

While they were busy arguing, Sora jumped on the boxes, getting onto the roof of the accessory shop. Come on...maybe if he started the moves, the right keyblade would come? He tried summoning it again, and was relieved at the feeling of the much lighter kingdom key. Something about the comforts of the familiar made it so much easier, or maybe its just the ability to shoot fuck you blades at will. 

Given, Leon had disappeared by the time Sora looked around, ready to send the silver blades against him. 

He listened for a moment, looking for the sound of his name. Leon. He jumped off the roof onto the alley where he awoke, hearing the heart much too close for comfort, surprising him. He felt the key move his body, and he managed to land on his feet. Leon followed closely, firing three flames at once. The gun had begun to glow from the heat of the shots, and Leon looked curious. 

“Another keychain already? Perhaps you aren’t as unworthy as I thought. However, you still aren’t ready for the responsibilities of the keyblade. Nor powerful enough.”

Sora, jumping down the ledge onto the ground floor to get some distance between the flames, throws out the regal blades, their arc catching the flames and dispelling them before Sora catches them, recombining them into the Kingdom Key as Leon swings at him. 

He diverts the swing, surprising Leon as his gunblade drives itself into the ground, he struggles to take it out from the hole it made. 

Sora proceeds to hit him a few times with the kingdom hey, driving him away from his weapon, the glancing blows of the key driving him away, lines of light emerging from every blow like scars, before they faded as Leon kneeled down. 

Sora closed his eyes and listened, wanting to make sure he was defeated. What he didn’t expect, was a Yuffie behind him. 

“Good Night! Hope you enjoy Chloroform!”

Sora was starting to get tired of forcibly sleeping. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jiminy’s Journal on Heartless:
> 
> Shadows are the natural form of the darkness, often dripping in cellars and other dark places of the worlds, festering on death and sin alike, often lacking any heart at their core. The one feature these liquid creatures have in common is a poison laced on claws, the most solid part of a shadow. While any weapon of magic or light can handle them, any normal weapon will simply cause them to pool. Sometimes, when a heart given to the darkness with pure intentions forms one of these, and those often have the most solid shape.
> 
> They say that when a shadow has gorged on enough sin, or that when a particularly heinous crime is committed, the Shadow transforms, gaining mass as it migrates across the realms to the Core of the Darkness, and these supermassive generals of the Heartless forms. Able to use his own darkness to create, call and multiply the shadows of a World, they act as generals, leading massive attacks against the worlds. However, they are unable to travel between shadows as their uninitiated form, leading them to need some gateway to darkness to allow them to attack. This made them a rare sight in the realm of light, however they have been increasingly appearing in worlds, and have become a sign of a world disappearing. In fact, only one world has survived an onslaught from a Darkside: Traverse Town, building grand walls to defend itself before the entirety got lost to darkness, however 2 districts had been lost by the time the moogles were able to finish the walls, sending traverse town to a near sleep state.
> 
> The Soldier Heartless is the most common breed of heartless, being born from Fear and Cowardice, their rattling bones and teeth forever immortalized in the clanging armor they wield. They wield claws laced with a similar poison as Shadows, able to amplify the darkness most predominant within a heart. As they attack many and indiscriminately, they often amplify their own feed, the fear of these monstrous beings. They also spin around, in an attempt to spread their poison farther by scattering it around the ground. Sometimes, it is even able to spawn shadows. However, it cannot control shadows.  
> Interestingly enough, they are a prime example of the specimens known as Emblem Heartless, a type of heartless born artificially that replicates based on a certain strain of darkness, either from the world or from hearts. These creatures feed on the same darknesses that they are born from, and are able to consume the hearts when they are taken by these darknesses. From there, they can replicate, binding their sins to the new heart and creating a new of their breed. For example, a Soldier, when making a commoner cower, will be able to take their heart, and use the cowardice before their death, create a new Soldier. This is the key to the large amounts of Soldiers, for they have such a base darkness, and to their universality.


	5. Hotel Hijinks and Other Assorted Vignettes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gears of Fate start to turn. Honestly the Master of Masters took his time getting there. Happy New Year and Day of the 3 kings! Sorry for the long delay!

Sora wasn’t quite sure if he had woken up, or if he was still dreaming. The soothing blue light of dreams past flitted through the window of the quaint room he was in. Art hung on the walls, or it was supposed to, the frames only holding black voids within them, the purple walls also dim. The only thing that was clear is the clock on the wall, ticking as a fish pendulum swung through. 

A familiar face of metal appeared in one of the portraits. “I expected better from you.”

A new face appeared from another portrait, a face as black as the lack of art around it, much larger than the slender form of the Kingdom Key. ”Give the kid a break, I’m not as easy to use as you. Especially without training.”

It took one large hand, and began to pull itself out of the portrait, returning scenes to the paintings. 

“Excuses!! He is my chosen wielder, not some pissy dawdling old fool! Leon should not have been able to beat him, nor that Yuffie chick. Disappointing performance all around, really.”

The large form finally stood in front of Sora, a void with arms almost as wide as wings, the voice sounding like metal clanging, deeper than the Kingdom Key’s. 

“I forgot how demanding the realm of light could be. Kid, ignore them, this is my dream. We can leave them to our miseries. I was born from your despair after all.”

As the being walked, scraps of metal fell from their arms or wings, a sound like shackles ringing out. They grabbed Sora, taking him to one of the paintings, then pulling him through the frame into a world of steam and black metal, bending around them. 

“Now, you’ve been struggling to wield me, no? Too heavy unless grief is right there beside you. Weighing down on you.”

Streams of green liquid began to flow, lighting the almost gaunt head of the black iron, twisted into a facsimile of a smile. Sora began sobbing as the light hit the ground, unsure of the feelings that felt so strong in his heart. 

“ ‘Fraid it won’t get lighter ‘till you deal with it. But I can help you at least carry the key. Give you the strength to carry on. My dance is one done alone, not a fancy namby panny waltz of light, it's a chore and a pain to get through. Sure you’ll be a natural though. You are the chosen wielder of the Realm of Light.”

The green light began pouring over Sora, pulsing as it weighed him down, chains of tears from an uncaring changing world. 

“Come on, we can’t dance if you can’t even stand up straight! You think the heartless won’t beat on you harder!”

The light began to pour on him as well, illuminating that grin until it looked obsessed, manic. 

Sora could hear the voice coming from his heart as well. 

_ Fall. Give in.  _

This was a part of him. 

A part that was so close to letting him crumble. 

He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.

He can be strong. 

Maybe not forever. 

Maybe not even a day. 

But he had to make sure. Make sure that Kairi, Wakka, Selphie, Tidus, Riku weren't waiting around the corner. 

The glowing stream felt lighter. 

Maybe Sora got stronger. Maybe he just stopped crying as much. 

The stream led the dance, guiding him around the black steel scenery as he shakily followed the steps. 

Every step he still sank into the sorrow. He wasn’t good enough yet. 

Repeat. 

That's what he did with the last keyblade. 

He repeated. 

He tried again. 

He’ll get it eventually. 

He has to. 

A booming laughter echoes as Sora dances through the rafters of black steel, Metal Chocobo saying “We aren’t all that simple kid!”

The blue light begins burning away the rafters. 

Flames begin spreading, the streams of green fading as orange light overtakes the dark city, blue light chasing away the steam. 

“Hey, Ventus, why don’t our keyblades ever talk to us. Were you abusive to her or something?”

He was in the hotel room again, the orange glow of the flames now being nothing more than the stream of light. Was he dreaming? Metal Chocobo appeared in his hand, lighter somehow. He tried to switch to Kingdom Key, and found it easier than last time. He tried to switch again, but once again it failed. 

He was still dreaming, wasn’t he?

“Maybe because we got formal training so we accidentally chained up the keyblade? Who knows. But I kinda want to keyblade wield in my sleep.”

He looked around at the room, looking rust like the one in his dream. However, the soft blue light was beginning to be replaced by the orange light of the city, although it never quite faded. 

The room looked exactly like it did, the clock quietly ticking as Sora went to look at the paintings. 

He didn’t want to be wrong about being asleep, so might as well move, right? 

The clock’s golden hands were weirdly warped, ticking even as they stood still. Sora tapped the glass, and watched the hands spin suddenly. 

Maybe not yet. 

He didn’t quite know why his body suddenly felt quick. 

“I just want to show my keyblade who’s boss! And also figure out where the eye came from. It's pretty disconcerting.”

He looks around the room, his eyes catching the paintings around the room, each one a scene overlooking an ocean, at a different time of day. Really, they were quite well done, Sora almost smelling the salt in the breeze. 

“Hey, Sora.” Vanitas snaps his fingers. “Yoo hoo. Are you aware yet. It's kinda weird seeing you sleep-appreciate art.”

“Oh, uh. Yeah. Am I awake yet?”

“Eh I have no clue. As a heart my grasp on reality is fuuuucked.”

“Can’t you leave this place? Or are you like, tied to my senses?”

“Ooh, the little boy is finally understanding things! Look Wind Boy, your maelstrom of horrible explanations wasn’t wasted!”

“Come on Vanitas, don’t tease him! Or me while you’re at it!”

Sora, already tired of the banter from the last times they have done it, decides to be slightly more proactive. “Do you guys know what time it is? I think the clock’s busted.”

“Eh, it's probably just lagging. Keep tapping until it stops, that's what I would do!”

“That's why we never have nice things, Vanitas. That. Exact. Reason!”

“Well you’re the reason we’re BORING! Imagine how much fun it would have been to mess with Sora as a child! But noooo we HAD to hide ourselves. AND HE COULDN’T EVEN SEE US!”

“Oh whatever. Where's the door I’m starting to feel cramped with this buffoon being this close to me.”

“OH I’-“

Sora tuned out. It's too soon to start laughing. He had just lost all his friends; he shouldn’t be holding back a snicker. Come on, go through the door, figure out where you are. 

He turned the doorknob, and went through. 

“Hey, Sora, Cool Trick but isn’t the point of doors to leave the room, not come back in?”

“What-Oh. Didn’t know doors are magic here.”

He had come in through the other door to the room, the only difference being a white envelope sealed by a wax stamp of a silver color. 

Sora opened it, because you don’t ignore room service, what are you, a heathen?

_ Your appointment is scheduled for another time. Please wait until the Bellhop notifies you.  _

_ Thank you for staying at the Sterling Hotel.  _

_ -The Concierge _

“Well that’s not weird at all. Do we at least get room service, oh present Concierge?”

“Don’t tease the man doing his job Vanitas! I’m sure you could tra- I’m not finishing that thought. There is no way I want to give you any ideas.”

“TOO LATE! OH, THAT WILL BE GREAT AS SOON AS I HAVE FLESH AGAIN!”

“I have cursed myself to an eternity of shock and horror. Sora. Please. Promise you’ll carry my last words to someone who knows me.”

“Oh Venny my man, Wind Boy, Venti sized order of Nerd, you will not meet your end by my steel toed boots of pranks. Oh no, I need you alive to torment!”

Sora looks at the window. The same blue and orange light glowed through the glass, the same time as when he came. Maybe. Time never felt to move, the past looming right behind him every second he took. 

A silence loomed over the room for a few seconds, divided by the even ticking of the stagnant clock. 

Ventus moved closer, the glittering shimmer of a form laying a limb on his shoulders. “You good, Sora?”

“I’m not the one who is floating in the void, you don’t need to worry about me.”

“You are the one who lost everyone you knew a while ago. I know Vanitas can get me carried away, and I should have asked but...whenever I was sad, it always felt better to be distracted than to dwell on the past. So like, I figured I wouldn’t forc-“

“It's fine. I’m fine.”

“Sora. You know that's a lie. We’ve seen you lie to everyone so many times with that lie. Trust us. If you can’t trust the people in your heart who can you trust.”

“I...I don’t know. But I don’t want to talk about it. It hurts. I don’t want it to hurt. It hurts more when I talk about it. I should probably just, move on, huh?”

“Come on Sora, don’t be like that, the longer you hurt, the less you’ll be able to move on.”

“I’M FINE, let's just...wait for the bellhop.”

The disembodied voice sighed, unable to really do anything. Vanitas had been slamming the lack of a head into the wall behind them, not wanting to mess with the moment but also getting very bored. He wasn’t a touchy feely guy unless it was to make someone else uncomfortable. 

But for now, he could still muster a husk of patience, looking at the old ticking clock, waiting. 

Waiting. 

* * *

  
  


“I am DONE waiting for you to appear! You and I both know that you are here, Ansem! damn xehanort better repay me if he ever appears in this time period again.”

“I would assume an Oracle would have more patience than a toddler.”

“I am patient for events, not to fulfill whatever glut for dramatic timing a heart with no body has. I am the mistress of all Evil, not a chump for change!”

“Perhaps, I would be more willing to not waste your time, if you had not wasted mine by guiding me towards a useless child. Were you not the one who told me the keyblade wielder I had to neutralize was one Riku, who has a lack of a keyblade. Perhaps you shouldn’t have left your world after all.”

“Or perhaps, the keyblade noticed the interference you were emitting, and in an emergency of cosmic proportions, the Keyblade of Light chose a not entangled child? Or maybe I who can see all that has been am simply wrong. You decide.”

“What good is a silent prophecy. We joined forces so that I could entice the keyblade wielder, and yet here we are, with me fused to a ragamuffi-“

“Have you no eyes in that damned cloak of yours! You know as well as I that his heart wields a keyblade, even if that bequeathed gift is cloaked in YOUR darkness!”

“Why must you always be right…”

“It's my Job! Anyways, you wouldn’t even be able to corrupt that damn boy, he had hearts that would have driven you away. And even then, his heart is so sickeningly pure you would need years to corrupt him, years where he did not have a keyblade.”

“I could have tried, no? I am much more convincing than  _ you _ ”

“And yet you would abandon such a delicious darkness such as this Poor Child, perhaps I can take him off your hands until you have courage enough to take him in his entirety!”

“Perhaps thats not entirely a bad idea. I’m sure you have more experience than I in the lack of any keyblade. Perhaps you can even give him half a weapon, to be worthy of my heart.”

“Hmmmm...I can work with him. Of course, I must receive the body first, no?”

“You may have the boy, but you must stop the keybla-“

“Must stop the keyblade wielder before he gains memories, experiences and artifacts to strengthen that blade of his yes yes he already has 2 if you must know that it is much too late to stop him. I even believe that the Keyblad-“

“I know not of what you speak, nor do I care. Take this child, and fill him with darkness, and I will fade to recuperate my strength. Have your silly ‘darkness jamboree’ while I am gone, Light knows that Kingdom Come that sorry bunch of dark fodder will require all the help they can get. A Vizier, a queen, an imprisoned octopus fairy, truly, I am no fool like them.”

He waves his hand over his chest, the cloth fraying and separating, releasing the Body of one Riku, their muscles quivering, darkness wrapping and fading on his skin, not able to form any cohesive whole. 

Maleficent strokes his cheek...she can ready a heartless with this, yes. It will take time, however. 

* * *

“Why isn’t THE FUCKING CLOCK MOVING ITS BEEN AT LEAST AN HOUR, PROBABLY EVEN MORE!”

“A watched pot never boils, Vanitas, calm down.”

“Well a watched CLOCK thats  **ticking** sure SHOULD!”

“Vanitas maybe its because you’ve been staring at the clock for 30 minutes.”

“WELL I SURE DON’T KNOW THAT, BECAUSE IT HASN’T MOVED!”

Vanitas’ husk of patience had long been discarded, looking directly at the clock as Sora and Ventus had begun playing a game of verbal rock paper scissors (Sora had somehow won more times than expected), bored waiting for the signal, whatever it would be. However, Sora was joining the ranks of Vanitas in terms of impatience, and began to approach the clock. 

After the last time he tapped, he was kinda scared to do so again, but really he didn’t know what else to do. 

He tapped a few times, the hands moving forward by quite a bit each time. The blue light outside the room slowly began to fade as he kept tapping it, pausing occasionally to see if it would move without them. The ticking became uneven, quickly pulsing as it seemed to skip minutes and seconds and hours. 

A bell rang out throughout the room, and a voice emerged from some hidden corner of the Hotel. 

“Party of 3, your hosts are ready. Please leave the room.”

The door shimmered as it rang the golden knob turning a sterling silver as Sora walked out. 

“Wonder what was up with the paintings…Hey Ventus, did you also see them change?”

“Yeah, I think. It was weii-“

A bell rang, interrupting the two, and a letter in Sora’s hand. 

_ Please don’t speak while your hosts are waiting. And also, do not tell them about the two hearts, as they cannot see them. _

_ -The Concierge _

Sora supposed there was nothing to be afraid of, as he looked around the empty hall. He could see 4 doors, but was afraid of barging into the incorrect one. 

Heading to a window near one end of the hall, he rings the bell in the hopes of someone coming to attend him. 

A ghastly voice emerges from the curtains: “Your Query, Sir?”

“Uhh, which room has my hosts, I think is what you ca-“

“Ah, forgive us. We are not used to serving unconscious children. That would be room 2, first to your right. Ask for one Leon.”

The curtain swayed in the breeze, and yet the deep darkness behind it never shifted. 

Sora tensed, both at the voice and the familiar name. 

He gulped. 

He hoped that Leon wasn’t still mad. 

* * *

Cruella had been sighing as she headed down to the synthesis shop. Her luck had been rotten to the core ever since those blasted heartless had started their invasion, the trade routes that brought her pelts having been taken by the damn darkness! And the worlds that have any materials are swamped in their defenses or closing their borders in order to remain safe!

Sometimes she wished that puppy pelts still satisfied her. 

However, she happened across a peculiar sight as she entered the second district courtyard, coughing on her cigarette smoke, an increasingly common occurence to her disappointment. 

The Leader of the Moogle Guild was fluttering over the courtyard, collecting small shards of crystals that were littered all over the ground, and to Cruela, something else, something much more valuable. 

Heartless Pelts, Helms, oh so many lush skins of soldiers that she could use! Well, maybe only one or two, but that was two more than she had gotten in the past MONTH!! She was simply giddy with joy!

She straightened her back and blew a ring at the moogle, getting its attention as she approached. 

“Daaarling, I simply must ask, has the Guild claimed the pelts, or shall I simply take them right now!”

“The Guild has no storage for pelts kupo! You are free to take the pelts, but the helms are guild metal, kupo! We need all the metal we can get for the earrings we can make now!”

“Hmm...I suppose I can reject any commissions that require metal. Or, I can find whoever left this here! Or was this some meteoric event or whatever those astrologers go off about when they come into town, the gummi blocks or whatever!”

“I think it was a kid, kupo. New wielder of the keyblade, Kikupo saw a kid with a giant key fight in the first district, maybe he fought some heartless here kupo.”

“Oh, oh why thats wonderful, a keyblade wielder I can s-did you say a kid? A KID?? WHAT GOOD IS A DAMN BRAT MORE LIKELY TO STAB HIMSELF WITH THAT THING THAN PRO-wait, wait wait wait I have a thought.”

The Moogle sighed, having experienced first hand Cruella’s whims and outbursts. A genius tailor she may be, but she could never joi-

“Do you have the materials for a guild supplier bracelet, you know the one, the one that can take the skin of quarry automatically!”

Kikupopa had to cough, her flailing arms sending her cigarette smoke wide and far, thankfully less lethal than her previous smoke, although still as green. 

He hated his job sometimes. 

“Ah, yes, we do have the material’s for that with this haul, what are you suggesting? That still doesn’t get over your gripes ab-“

“The child will simply do as he has, but the bracelet will automatically harvest the parts and maintain them in perfect quality! We will be able to trick him into giving us the parts for free! Haha, I’ll commission you for it, come on, what’ll it cost!”

A sigh, as his wings struggled to keep the air around him clear. “Well, a Blazing Material for one. We can’t keep our forge lit long enough to forge anything without one, and we’ve run out. That price enough?”

“Hmmm…well, if this goes according to plan I’ll get a replacement ring anyways! So darling, would this ring be enough? I will ask for a brighter glow however, in the ring I commission from you”

From her large fur coat, she pulled out a ring, the once abundant amount now running out as the shortage had gone on. However, it was only a shard, unable to keep the fires stoked for more than a day, only enough time to forge the materials of the day. They might be able to make ingots out of the helms before they began to rot at least. 

Really, every craftsman had been feeling the brunt of darkness on their shoulders as the shops had to close, only the masters of guilds being open anytime. 

The poor could be seen with torn clothes, often forsaking layers when cold in an attempt to make the few clothes left last, while the rich struggled to keep the glamor of their lives, their jewelry being sold for the increasing prices of clothes to maintain some status of class. 

Even Cruella the Extravagant, in her powerwild fur coat, was beginning to show the wear and tear, her cigarettes smelling more putrid than ever, and the once even fur thinning in spots, the plushness being lost. Her angled face lacked the often Iconic jewelry that framed her face in such a way that the gauntness was even more pronounced. The loops of villainy that she partook in was sometimes even thicker than the air surrounding her. 

He sighed, already being too desperate for blazing materials to reject them, and even more desperate to get to craft things. She may not be a  _ devil  _ woman anymore, but she certainly kept her ways. 

He was left alone with the ring as she walked away, her heels clicking as she dissipated into a cloud of her own cigarette smoke, her cackle lighting it as she faded. 

* * *

Yuffie was the first thing Sora saw as he entered the room, Leon leaning against the wall behind the door. He could feel the stares on his back even as he barely passed through the door, Ventus and Vanitas quietly floating in his periphery. 

“So you are the chosen of the keyblade. Dunno, he seems to be packing light, where is he keeping it?”

“Yuffie its a mystical weapon of the cosmos of course it can look invisible. Also, don’t try to steal it again, once is enough.”

“I WILL NOT BE CONTAINED BY THE EDICTS OF MANKIND NOT THE EDICTS OF AN INFERIOR GAME”

“Just because I don’t play hopscotch I swear to GOD YUFFIE WE WERE GOING TO MAKE A DRAMATIC THREATENING STATEMENT WHY MUST YOU MAKE EVERYTHING SO DIFFICULT”

“Because I actually have FUN unlike you losers, take the L Squall!”

Vanitas felt the sudden urge to laugh, at the horribly unexpected revelation of the name, being stopped by Leon’s outburst. 

“Graaa-You know what. Fine. Be the commentary. But do NOT interrupt my explanations. So, kid, what do you know about that thing you were swinging with reckless abandon, and why we had to keep it away from you?”

“Keep it away? But it's right here?” The Keyblade appeared as prompted, Sora tripping as the weight of metal chocobo suddenly appeared, having tried for the kingdom key. 

“Wh-Wh-WHAT! I stole it! I know I did! I kept it at 3AM to make sure you couldn’t get it without our app-Squall I told you the magical thingamabob would return to him! It was totally pointless to do all of that! Come ON and now who knows how soon the hea-“

“What did I say Yuffie.”

“Fine Fine! God you get so annoying Squall!”

A sigh. “Answer the Question, Kid.”

“Well...I know its called the keyblade, and, and I know that it can beat up the heartless, an-“

Ventus held his hand over Sora as best as he could. “Caution, we don’t know why they want the information. The Knowledge of the keyblade shouldn’t be handed out to just anyone. Only the chosen few. Kept us safe in the war.”

“And thats all I know.”

“Hmm. I expected the Envoy of Light to tell you more.”

“Envoy? What's that? Is...is it the Darkside? Because I beat it up while the whole world was falling apart.”

“The world w...It likely didn’t have time. Yeah, probably. That makes sense. We have to tell you all about your sacred duty! Sit, sit, the heartless will not wait or take heed, we need to be quick.”

He could feel Ventus reeling, Vanitas’ cackles permeating as he repeated random phrases through wheezes. In his ear, Ventus whispered, “crackpots, clearly, don’t trust a word they say.”

It was a lot easier to keep quiet as the two rambled in complete oblivion to each other. 

“The Keyblade is a weapon granted by the Realm of Light, in times of struggle, such as the Cataclysm of the Worlds, or The Great War, or the Turning of the Sea, And in those times the great Keyblade of Light banished whatever darkness distrubed the balance of the worlds”

“What the hell the keyblade is just a blade handed down for generations it has no greater purpose, made by people for people this is all ridiculous why did we get beat by gun wielding HIPPIES”

“Why did the keyblade choose a kid like you! You can barely even wield it correctly, much less commune with the light , why did it even choose you.”

“IT COULDN’T CHOOSE HIM YOU GOT THE KEYBLADE PROBABLY FROM OUR HEARTS BEING INS- what was that for Vanitas yes I know he talks to it but I refuse to believe a word from Leon”

“I suppose we have no choice. If it chose you then you must be the right choice. Or we’re all doomed. Ok, first question: You realize that as long as you hold it your heart is broadcasted to as many people as it can, correct?”

Sora, still a bit confused, replies to them both. “What does that mean? Broadcasted?”

“Every heart has darkness. Few ever even begin to touch it. Those who wield the keyblade wave it in the air, wielding their heart, their imperfections, their selves, into battle, of course they would be able to smell it. They are beasts, attracted to whatever darkness they can smell, any shred of darkness they can feed on, they will find it. To even wield a weapon of such pure light, your darkness must stand out against it, every single one of their vices in gourmet, for them to consume. Or perhaps they fear it, desiring to destroy the hearts able to destroy them. No one knows about the heartless, the information about them is lost to reports across the worlds. A shame that we lost Ansem the Wise to the Hollowing-”

All three of the Sortas took a double take, looking as Leon looked out into the window, maybe trying to hide his face as he had strolled around the room, maybe thinking about a star that wasn’t there anymore. “What's the hollowing? Is-is it going to come? Or was it like. A thing you dramatically reference then proceed to not talk about.”

There was a slight shift in stance, not that Sora could scrutinize if it was surprise or resignation, the curse of fur collars. “Ah, right, we haven’t mentioned that. The Worlds are falling to darkness right now, as I believe you may have seen looking at the star sky. The whole, blackening of entire worlds, that's why it awoke. The night sky is becoming hollow, fading. There isn’t much time left, you see. If you listen, the song of the stars is already hollow, fading, falling. You must save them, Sora.”

“W-what? But, but” Sora started, but was swiftly interrupted by Yuffie. “What? You’re just a kid? You don’t know if you can help? Well toooouuuuugh luck, kid! That's on you!”

Sora looked at the starry, now that Leon had moved once again. Silent. 

Let's go back a bit, to the room next door, a room where a familiar duo and host are. 

* * *

  
  


Aerith was sipping some tea, the red curtains of the room enchanted by Donald to contain any noise that may emerge. In Traverse Town, loose words are found quick and spread quicker. Thankfully, the gold laden velvet held magic already, and quick feathers bind them tight. Goofy was tangled in curtains and sipping tea from on high. 

“So, uh, Ms Aerith Ma’am, are we going to meet this Leon lad the king told us about? We don’t want to disobey an order, even for one as lively as yourself”

“Oh, don’t worry, I can handle this. You were meant to talk to me anyways, Leon is just the one who should patrol all the time, so the easier one to find.”

“Uhhhhh, can you repeat that but less convoluted like? I’m afraid I’m a bit airheaded as it stands, see with all this high flying nonsense, so if y- WOA-OAH!!” 

Goofy plonked down onto his seat, disappearing beneath the table cloth before rising, and a teacup sent spinning by the fall landing on his hand, tea piping hot and not a drop spilled. 

“I’m the one your king wanted you two to meet with. Figured I could help you find the keyblade wielder, or at least provide you with some stuff for your journey.”

“Why’d the king think that, huh? Hard to think some random girl would have things not even a king does, no?” Donald, having finished with the curtains, sat down for tea as well, not taking a cup, suspicious of the lady who didn’t let them see the Leon guy. 

“I’m pretty sure it has to do with the fact that I was the last person to hold the Ansem Reports. Or maybe its just that I can get you to the keyblade holder with the least turbulence. I still have some of my old talents from my own world, you see.”

“Ah, and we are supposed to trust someone who, I assume, lost said reports? Can you even perceive past the borders of order of worlds?”

“It wasn’t my fault that the book was left in Radiant Garden as it fell to darkness, now is it? We barely escaped as is, and lost most of our stuff in the process. And my sight is limited to the world I am in, and that is plenty more than you, Court Magician. Should you really be questioning me? Or perhaps enjoying tea is more your speed.”

There was a sound grumbling the feather gallery, but Goofy speaks up before the grumbling grows too loud. “Well, why would those pages be important? Wasn’t Ansem a friend of the uhhh then there king, the king oughta know all the privitatey secrets, right? So then them there pages would already be in our library and what not thanks to the king and all that, no?”

“The Ansem Reports were highly classified, and possibly written during the aftermath of that horrible Coup that began the hollowing, so the King likely didn’t know before he went off to the great wherever the hell.”

“Ah, so the king didn’t tell you where he was going. Well that's great. Wonderful. Fan fucking tastic.”

“Well, gawrsh, are you OK Miss Aerith ma’am? Losing your world sounds very painful, losing your lawn, your things, your jiggers, your thingamajiggers. How many people made it, ya think?”

“I...don’t really know. People had been disappearing for so long...its hard to keep count when you get hopeless you know? And even then, of those left when it fell...I can only say I saw 5 people leave. 3 of them are in this hotel, actually. Don’t know where the other 2 went. Maybe there are more, but who can say. Onto more important matters, I believe the king mentioned a Jiminy Cricket, something about a Scribe transcribing information on the heartless coming with?”

The china clinked for a second, as the secret 4th guest, a cricket quite used to being ignored, a thimble of tea in his hands, going around the teapot: “Jiminy Cricket, Part Time Conscious, Full Time Scribe, Full Time Scanner, currently the forefront master of the Scanning Arts and Spells, and credited by Disney Castle. What’s your need?”

“See, I believe that you may be able to perceive quite a few of the lost pages. You already keep a rudimentary bestiary of sorts in wherever you write, correct? I believe I may have something to help with gathering information.”

From the drapery of the house, she pulls out a glass bottle of ink, some of the darkest that any of the people had ever seen. “This is ink from the castle, imbued with some...Darkness? I believe? I have no real clue, but it seems safe, and I believe that with it you’ll get the same insights Ansem did on the Report, perhaps even greater insight. Especially as you are due to meet the key in, oh, a few hours?”

Jiminy Cricket, blushing at her faith in his abilities, and moving towards the new well to fill a vial or 5 with the new ink, was quickly overshadowed by Donald, who screamed with more than a bit of incredulity, “HOURS?? WHAT GOOD IS A FORETELLER WHO CAN’T EVEN TELL US WHERE THE KEY IS NOW!”

“It’s the ideal path, not that you would understand, you big meanie! Plus, I can tell you where you are going to meet with him! Same place you’ll get some nice clothes, the Cruella and Dalmation Mansion, down by the exit to the sewers. You can’t mi-oh no they are here.”

And here is where these two stories conv-

“Get on with it Narrator this narrative can move on without you!” Donald said, helpfully. 

* * *

And so, Sora, looking out the window, was suddenly surprised by the sound of clattering armor. He turned around, and Leon was looking at him. “Whats the matter, Sora? Why are yo-”

He didn’t finish, as the Soldiers came, yellow eyes on Sora. Leon and Yuffie, to be fair, were very quick to pull out their weapons, Yuffie pulling out way too many, and way too big, shurikens out of her bags of secrets (read: pockets) and Leon already on the other side of the room, hand reaching for the Gunblade. 

In the other room, it was a bit slower. Donald snapped, and all the cloth that was hiding the conversation began to swirl, solidifying into his Stave, as Goofy sighed. “Sorry Miss, Donald does this whenever he has anger to work out. He really thought he was gonna see the king or something, I hope that you have fireproof belongings in the next room.”

She sighed, as she looked. Donald had opened the door, the screams of let me at them flying loose from his lips as he pointed the Wizard’s Staff down the face of the heartless, embers flying off. 

For a second, Sora had to process the magician duck that suddenly appeared. He began to say “oh my god am i going to see magic!”, but was interrupted by Donald, his voice ringing as he yells semi incomprehensibly, “BLAST OFF!”.

The Ball of Fire is summoned at the tip of the staff, at first small, but then from the fabric that emerges streams of flame increasing it in too large a size. 

Almost by instinct, Sora had Metal Chocobo out by the time the ball went flying. 

The resulting blast knocked him clean out the window, the keyblade taking the brunt of the shockwave. 

The other two were only tossed against the wall (well, Yuffie didn’t move but she’s a ninja she has a pass), as Goofy goes up to Donald, as if nothing happened. 

“Did you leave the stove on, Donald? It kinda smells burnt.”

The only trace of the soldiers was red hot helmets and a few shards of Spirit. 

Some would argue there's even less traces of Sora. 


	6. Of Tales and Tailors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From Alley to Mansion, Sora meets new acquaintances, allies. He also beats up some hooligans! Featuring Kairi, Atlantis, and Sewing!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhh, so, I figure I should explain Jiminy’s Journal, since it’s probably going to be a majority of end cards now
> 
> Jiminy’s Journal is basically my way of adding Useless Worldbuilding tm to the story, since I can’t naturally add it to the story, and will include a few things. Generally, there should be at least SOMETHING down there. However, in case there’s nothing, I will add something
> 
> Heartless Bios, generally from the first time they appear. Shadows and Darkside appeared in chapter 4 because Jiminy wasn’t a character before then!
> 
> Notes on Materials: These will basically be treatises on the nature of items, and talk about some fundamental element of the world, usually more in relation to Heartless and the physical element, generally appears the same chapter I first mention it by name! Mystery Goo and Blazing will come later i swear
> 
> Notes on Magic, this is much more spiritual, and will usually coincide with one material (like Fire Magic and Blazing Materials, since both are connected by the whole. Fire. Thing.), and will generally talk about them in relation to people. There will be some of this in the main story, but not nearly as much. 
> 
> Notes on Keyblades, 5 per. I guess I should explain whats up with keyblades, since...its practically where I take 10 leaps of creative liberty. I’m sure you’ve already noticed, Kingdom Key turns into boomerangs thats keyblade transformations that comes in by kh3! Well I like them so uhhh too bad. They will also replace Drive Forms if I ever reach kh2....but, more astute viewers may be thinking about how I described the kingdom key changing appearance, the blasphemy! Well, do I have the source for you! Im giving each keyblade 5 stages of evolution, like in Union Cross (the original, look up divine rose union cross its very pretty). And so, the Journal roughly adds a bit of lore to the keyblade every transformation! I will probably make the 5th and Final transformation in chapters be every note in order, and the only thing in the journal. 
> 
> I might also add things as the story continues, and I figure out how I will interpret more mechanics, but these will compose the majority of the entries. 
> 
> Also: The world intros i do on the first chapter of the world, thats generally also Jiminy’s Journal, but just aesthetics. However, nothing in the Journal will ever be vital! All important plot beats should occur in the main story, this is all just authorial embellishments for those of you who want a meatier world to sink into!

There’s something that is relaxing about water. Even when there’s naught but a trickle, as it flows over your ears, you are somewhere else. A quiet place, a place where there is nothing but the soft beating of the heart. And of course, the vision of a friend he thought was gone. Kairi’s little giggle did plenty to alleviate the tension in the quiet spot, what little water there was depositing on the shore of stones, the light a green as the quiet cave was filled with the shimmer of the sea. There was a serene silence, only the two of them and the waves. 

“So, Sora, are you doing alright?”

“What do you mean Kairi, why wouldn’t I be OK? I’m with a friend.”

“I mean, you still are in an alien world, lost in a cave. I wouldn’t exactly say things are peachy.”

“Well at least we are together, Kairi.”

“Is that really enough, Sora? Am I all you need to be ok?”

“Well, if both of us are here in body and soul, then we can find the rest, right?”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

There was a sadness to her as she said it. She reached to grab Sora’s hand, and it phased right through. A tear fell into the water, and yet not a ripple emerged. 

“Kairi-wha, are you ok! Who did this to you!”

“Sora, you know it stopped being so simple on the night that this all happened. Its a miracle I’m even here at all. Maybe we should just...enjoy it.”

Sora was sputtering, his brain moving a million miles an hour, wanting to say “No! It isn’t ok!”, to argue with Kairi. But he realized that he wouldn’t be able to keep any promises. He looked at Kairi, and sighed. 

“Hey Idiots, you done with your emotional crap? Can we come in yet or do we have to stay in the wall!”

“Vanitas, don’t be mean, come on, I know you don’t have any friends other than me but can you TRY to have some empathy??”

The two shadows of a form come in, looking much more solid than they had in a long time (A long time? How did Sora know?). They almost looked like people, if not for the missing faces. 

“Sora, are you going to introduce me to your new friend? Or am I just going to have to talk to them behind your back?”

“You can see them Kairi?!? I thought I was the only one!”

“So did we…”

“But to be fair, Venty Poo is struggling to have even 3 braincells. That is in fact his name Sora if you correct me I will hunt you down as soon as I have fists to do so with.”

“If I’m venny poo I’m making you VanVan and you have no right to fight back.”

“I didn’t really mention them because...well...they are kinda a lot? And I thought no one would be able to see them ever? So it seemed like a low priority, haha.”

Kairi hummed thoughtfully for a second, before looking at Sora. “Maybe I’m like them? There in spirit but not in presence? I’m sure I’ll fit in fine with all of them. Plus, they clearly need someone to teach them some manners, they are going stir crazy with only you there to talk to, they clearly need someone who can think things through. And I’ll be here with you.” She laid her hands on the stone where Sora’s hand is, her form phasing through. “We’ll be together at least. When we find the rest of our friends we’ll be together. Plus I’ll get to hear all the juicy gossip behind their back!”

“I dunno Kairi. Are you sure you’re ok with this?”

“Make the best of a bad situation, no? I won’t be alone either. I’ll have you. I’ll...I’ll make do.”

“And you’ll have us! I know VanVan might seem a bit rude, and he is, but he’s harmless now! Worst he’ll do is prank you.”

“I am darkness incarnate! I am the shadow of your pure heart! I am to be feared! Respected even! VanVan takes no pr-oh now I’m saying it. I have no hope. My creed. Lost.”

Sora wasn’t quite feeling up to dealing with the three. 

He kinda missed the silence of the water. So he returned. 

Plus, maybe it was the whole flying out of a building, but he didn’t quite remember how he got there in the first place?

He just floated along. Letting the three people watch him go while talking. 

Kairi’s face started getting fuzzier as he left, and he couldn’t quite tell her form as he continued down the little stream. 

Water is peaceful. 

It's lovely. 

* * *

  
  


When you aren’t being bothered by an umbrella. 

“A-Are you OK? Please don’t make me report to the Fairy Godmother again, I-I’m already running out of time for the expedition!”

Sora blinked a few times, focusing in on the world once again as he feels something against his face. 

“Oh thank god I-I was worried another one had fallen while-after-whenever in relation to arriving. Anyways have to go, Science never waits! See you arou-well maybe, probably not if thi-”

Sora doesn’t hear what’s next as the man runs away, paper flying past him, slipping past his sleeves. Sora couldn’t help but focus on a few words, specifically the others. Absentmindedly, he picks up the papers now scattered along the alley, following the scrawny...professor, maybe? His thoughts wandered as the man turned around the bend of the alley, disappearing beside the bend of the building. 

Given, the screams of the man cut the thoughts short, which rang out the alley, accompanied by the clanging of Soldiers, in the beat of a new sound. 

A deep rumbling, somehow increasing in intensity without the sound ever seeming to change. Sora began to run towards the man, hoping he could help. 

He turned around the corner, and there was something quite horrifying by the scene. Or maybe his stomach just couldn’t handle heartless yet. The Professor had been knocked down, his papers and a few other assorted things scattered around on the ground. There were quite a few shadows, their twisted forms hanging from walls, hanging around a lantern lighting it up, yellow eyes forming a fair part of the scenery. There were also Soldiers, not quite as many but enough to seem threatening, but the thing that he couldn’t help look at were these almost...ball like beings, large hands and their rotund stomach straining against the strings of the clothes, almost ripping through the flesh, darkness, body of the heartless. 

Whatever the case, Sora began throwing out the Regal Boomerangs before he could think, instincts coming in faster than he thought they would. The soft light of the blades began banishing shadows as Sora approached, their forms fading as the blades cut through arms, antenna, heads. 

There was a light splattering of shadows as it passed, drops of the shadows falling onto the ground, the limbs and form melting into the shards on the ground, yellow eyes dimming to darkness as Sora cut through them, approaching the man. 

“O-oh dear I knew I should have taken the bus oh why WHY did I not take the bu-right, there's no bus anymore, world fell to darkness I can’t get any work done-Well I suppose I won’t if I die, damn damn it all! I swore that I, Milo Thatch, would noy die before finding the Star of Atlantis!”

“Hey, uh, Mr. Thatch, if you wouldn’t mind picking up your stuff? It's kinda hard avoiding stepping on it. And here's a few papers.” He passes the few papers he caught as Milo ran, before catching the boomerang and spinning, sending it with the same momentum down low to attack the legs of soldiers and the lowest shadows, hoping it might manage to trip up the Large Bodies (large bodies? That's a very unusual name, isn’t it?). 

  
  


“Oh, no I’m not Mr. Thatch, that was my Dad I’m M-Oh, oh right, yes let me get on that it shouldn’t I.” Sora couldn’t really focus on him, the movements he was doing being almost foreign to his body and to the keyblade, almost an improvisational act, such as jumping on a boomerang as it came back to him, letting it attack the clattering sounds behind him as he moved away from the swipe coming from the shadows in front. The lumbering forms of the Large Bodies kept slowly approaching, the thunderous boom of their belly slaps becoming more and more ominous, before they began their first onslaught: They began to roll. Sure, not that threatening at first, but as they began to speed up, bumping into each other, gaining speed, destroying soldiers without discrimination, it began to emphasize the dangers of the large rolling balls of darkness. 

Somehow, it managed to bounce off harmlessly off walls, but Sora didn’t want to try his luck, hopping off the boomerang and grabbing it, letting the kingdom key reform into one, and blocking the first one. 

The Kingdom Key, although keeping Sora from the brunt of the damage, barely managed to get him to bounce off, Sora could feel something shift in his shoulder as he was knocked down, switching to Metal Chocobo, hoping that the Keyblade would be able to take more of the brunt before the next Large Body rolls into him. 

This time, when he blocked, he managed to stop the Large Body, its hand holding its head as the other two bumped into it, Sora jumping back as he held his shoulder. Milo had left through the much sparcer sea of shadows, watching Sora with a cringe as he looks at the shoulder, going through his jacket pockets. 

Sora, unable to keep focus on Milo, began to attack the dazed Large Body, hoping that the strength of Metal Chocobo would be able to do something. Anything. 

There was a resounding drum like sound, resounding deep as the ropes began digging into the flesh, the still face of the dark body not reacting as the cords seemed to almost cut into his flesh, before launching the key out of the stomach, a gash filling in with the ropes of the too tight clothes. 

The Darkness always managed to find new ways to gross Sora out. Really, the knitting of their flesh was quite, hideous. 

These rotund; blank faced wrecking balls began to surround Sora, beginning to paw at him with just as blank a look as they ever had, hands diving into their too tight clothes and coming out dripping with what Sora could only describe as the sounds of eating. As Sora blocked the first swing, the large form of Metal Chocobo taking more and more hits as stalwart as ever, the inert metal’s chill pushed away the almost gnawing sensation Sora felt as the hands approached. Given, Metal Chocobo was slow to move (or Sora was slow to move it, in all reality), and one attack got through, hitting Sora in the leg, almost a bite-like mark appearing rather quickly, tainted with the purple of the darkness. 

Knowing if he stayed, he wouldn’t be able to do anything, Sora tried to hit them again, hoping to knock them away so he could get behind them, maybe hitting the cloth rather than the rope might do something?

The large bodies, moving away a fair bit, enough for Sora to escape through, began to jump in some sort of twisted rhythm, the deep tympanic sounds forming a song that could only seize Sora’s heart with dread, the soldiers and shadows now nothing more than metal, skin and shards being kicked around. Sora, jumping above the shockwave, hits the clothes of one of the Large Bodies, a few times for good measure, the cloth ripping as Metal Chocobo digs deep into the flesh of the heartless. 

The cloth begins to rip beyond the tears that Sora managed to do, swirling mass inside the large body unfolding, expanding, tumorous growth emerging from the increasingly frayed back, mouths beginning to growl, eating at the flesh. Sora put the keyblade away, moving away from the maws. 

  
  


He wasn’t sure if he could beat it just yet. 

The maws faded into the body, forming almost ridges of tumors, the legs still, before reaching at one of the other large bodies, reaching into it, and pulling out a chunk of...something, spilling from his hand as he drops it into the too small head, overtaken by a mouth now. The other large body stills, and begins shrinking, deflating. The raging large body feasts upon the fading form of the large body, and the neutral large body, transfixed, watched. 

Sora, not sure what he was getting from the corpse, and not wanting him to get more, jumped behind the third body, and stabbed the Kingdom Key into the head of the heartless, then ripping down. He hoped that if the head was destroyed, it would die. 

For good measure, he slashed it a few times as he saw the body begin to bulge. 

It fell relatively quickly, the mass unable to keep up with the desperate slashes and falling, a veritable wealth of jewels and shards falling from its emblem, and a very thick rope as well, that seemed to be the only manner of shape the large bodies keep. 

Given, there was one more, swelling, teetering form, the small pot lid head looking directly at Sora. It rumbled, much more heavily than any of the past drum beats, almost like a drum roll. 

With much more speed than its body should allow, it ran at Sora, the same hunger coating its entire form, growing louder. 

Sora gulped, sending a boomerang to the form as he jumped out of the way, hoping the seeming invulnerability of the contained form was missing from this one. 

It was probably like a balloon, right? It was so hard because it was so full, so now that it popped what's inside is much easier to mess with, right?

The desperation in his thoughts seemed answered, the blades cutting through the flesh twice, once as it flew away from Sora and once when it came back, and they didn’t heal, the morphing ball cut. 

Given, that didn’t stop the rampage. 

Maybe if he cut th- a jump away from the charging form, seeing as it hit a wall and it appeared deceptively weightless still, only the splatter of its darkness showing its contact. 

“Um, if you don’t mind me saying, maybe try to chop off the head? I remember something like this appearing in a book somewhere, let, let me get it out!” Milo supplied, rattling through his bags for some text or another. 

Given, Sora was a bit more urgent, so he tried it, aiming the boomerang for the top of the form, and the blank face blinked for the first time, before the pot lid slid off along with the pair of eyes. 

The body quickly deflated, shrinking before the ripped cloth of the large body emerged around the almost balloon-like skin of the heartless, a pot lid and shackles ringing out as Sora breathed heavily. 

The world slowed down. 

Eventually it stopped. 

A Vizier and an Oracle step out of the shadows, looking at the scene of Carnage. 

“Couldn’t you have brought me some sand from Neverland, you must know how much this magic drains from the wit.”

“Couldn’t be helped, there was no time. We barely arrived on time as it is.”

“Well, we  _ did.  _ So what exactly were you needing  _ me _ here for, I know you could see this well enough without me coming in.”

“The keyblade is confounding to my sight, such a bright light I had not witnessed in so long, I had to get another seer to look at the problem.”

“Ahhh, the Keyblade. Oh, how I wish I could have been chosen for its power! Exponential magical power, and unable to be lost! What could be more useful! This brat, barely above a street rat, doesn’t even know the most basic of spells however.”

The metallic ting of gold against gold rings out in this stopped time. 

“He will learn, the Rat’s Court Jester will teach him soon enough.”

“Ah, that fowl feathered fowl with not even a shred of talent in his feathers. Makes sense. However, even I know that the keyblade would not confound your sight. We are free from ears in the walls, won’t you be honest with me, or are you waiting for your lover to escape.”

“Fine, fool! If you truly wished to know, then it is to ponder about destroying the keyblade wielder, before he locks away any world. A nuisance should only be given so much lead, and he is dangerously close to running out. And also, to see how I can refine these large bodies, blasted cannibals.”

“Thank you for your frankness. And I presume I am here to be but an advisor to this murder.”

“How perceptive. No wonder your king made you Vizier. Perhaps you could even say something Useful. Or maybe I made a mistake making you my left hand man.”

“Oh, I have plenty of thoughts. For One: We could use a weapon able to unlock any prison. For example, does Dear Ursula not need an escape from the ocean? I’m sure the keyblade will be enough for that. The River Lethe, for another. And Second, if that Jester of a Mage manages to befriend, won’t that boy with the yellow shirt be able to produce such delightful heartless? I’m sure we will be able to contain him before it gets out of hand. He may be able to contain the backwash worlds like Deep Jungle, but surely not any with the Princesses. The Queen would surely not give him a way anyway.”

“Silver Tongued fool that you are, you make some valid points. However, that keyblade is acquiring power quickly, I would not be surprised if it grew beyond our capabilities. Ah, we should make ourselves scarce, I can sense Merlin approaching us. That dolt is much too aware of time, we cannot have him catching us. Let us make haste.”

“Behind you, Madame.”

The world began ticking, and all was unchanged. 

A blue robed wizard who had just come in smokes his pipe in the third district...what could be happening. Worry Worry Worry, damn Archimedes being too busy packing up his house, made him late. 

* * *

  
  


Sora blinked, and began collecting the pretty shiny things, finding them fascinating. Using the balloon like skins of the large bodies to hold the much clearer slivers, almost looking like a crescent moon. 

“Are you OK? How badl-wait why am I asking I’ll just take a look…” Milo approaches, holding a bottle of some green liquid, before grabbing his leg quite forcefully. 

“Let’s see...Damage is not too bad, but it will probably last forever, thank god I splurged on a potion instead of just seeing the healer. Tell me when it hurts.” He squeezed the bottle, and the liquid began to pool like a balm or lotion, and he began rubbing it on the bite marks, softly glowing as the purple tinge that had begun to spread emerged from the bites, a sludge like thing that then faded in a dark spark in front of Milo’s neutral face. In one last flash, the bites floated off the skin, and were replaced by glowing dots, before a vine design was left, slowly fading.

“W-what are y-GAH what is that and why does it sting!”

“Because it's burning away the darkness that’s why! Dear lord did you not have medicine in your world its not that weird. Is there any other spot that feels off, perchance? You were holding your shoulder weird you know what I’ll just apply it.”

“Wh-no! I’m fine, why are you doing this? Weren’t you late to an expedition or something?”

“Come on, it won’t hurt. Plus, it's more important to help a kid than to find my lifelong dream. I'm not consumed by desire. The board of exploration will simply have to wait. Come on, take off the jacket, the potion can’t go through two layers as thick as these. Honestly, you should go see Cruella, these clothes are so inconvenient for this place. Come on, let's go.”

Sora was a bit suspicious, but he figured that Milo’s heart didn’t sound like it wanted to hurt him, so he let the jacket hang off. This time, Milo just poured the potion, the last few drops falling onto the shoulder, and Sora could feel the bones shifting into place, stinging less as it shifted the bone into place. A few bubbles emerged from the sleeve, and Sora wasn’t really sure how to react. 

“There! Now, I hope you don’t mind if I ask you a few questions? Those weapons aren’t exactly common, you know! I could even help you get situated or or something. I might even be able to help you understand those blades, they are in quite of the books that I have. I-I’m sure I can help you somehow.”

“What's so complicated about them? It's just a key that can whack things real hard and talk to you in your dreams, no?”

“Well, yes, but...well no actually, not just any key can dispatch the mad self, the, the beasts of darkness, the myths of the end, the emissary of destruction! Steel is consumed by their endless maws, they summon fire and rice cakes with equal violence! Somehow, they are simultaneously ancient, and a brand new phenomenon! I barely know how to process them as a historian, and the -I’m getting off track, aren’t I.”

“Rice Cakes? How are rice cakes threatening? I-Yes, yes, it's a bit off topic. I had a question, actually. You said there were others that had arrived? Did you see them? How long ago did they arrive?”

“Oh, they arrived last week, a bunch of animals, one was a bear who managed to break through the ceiling when he woke up, the other was a Maid Mary Anne something, she was grieving for Robin Hood, I believ-oh. Oh you’re asking for yo-ah. Yeah, I don’t think anyone from your world has come in, no.”

There was a silence as the two walked out of the alley, the familiar song of the stars barely able to lighten the heart. 

“But, but, there is a theory, there is the possibility, that if they didn’t fall to darkness, that if they remained human to the end, that if you can undo the cataclysm, they can come back. Things will return to normal, I believe. probablynotbutidon’thavetocrushyourdreams.”

“Wait, really?!? Kai-oh, they aren’t here. I’ll have to tell Kairi when I see her then. We can forget about this. We can be normal. Thank you, Mr. That-wait, you wanted to be called Milo right?”

“Yeah yeah. Anyway-wait, are you going to other worlds? I have a request if so! See, I’m a linguist, but books don’t really have a habit of surviving the darkness, so I have been extremely limited in my samples. If you can bring me some literature from other places maybe, maybe I can figure out how to reverse this whole cataclysm! And-And I’ll be able to, to chart out the expedition! Oh yes this, this is wonder-If you agree to it, of course.”

“Uhhh, I don’t see why not?”

“Great! Its a deal! I’ll get the crew, you get charts and books, and...how about I translate any books you get! You never know what you might find, might be useful! Oh, and by the way, you’re here. Hope Cruella doesn’t tear you to shreds. See you around, uh, what w-“

“Sora!”

“Ah, yes of course. See you around, Sora.”

  
And so Milo Thatch left, mind heavy with possibilities, and there was a Sora, a bit confused by it all, with hope filling his heart, at the door of the Mansion. He stepped in. 

* * *

The rooms were as opulent as they were empty, large stained glass transforming the soft twinkle of starlight into a chromatic display upon the plush velvet furniture. A bell chimed as he entered, arms heavy with the shackles of the large body and a large bag of jewels. He looked around, a slight anxiety about Cruella emerging and kicking him out beginning to bubble. 

He heard from the other room an elegant, if not haughty, voice call out. “Come in, Come in darling, Anita is serving tea and Roger is out for a walk you won’t be interrupting!”

Sora began shuffling his way to the other room, still anxious. He then saw a petite woman with a teapot in hand, who turned to look at him. “You can leave that at the door, sweety, come and sit, you look all the worse for wear.”

There were 2 other occupants sitting there, a duck complaining about a second serving of tea with a snickerdoodle in mouth, and a lanky dog a few heads taller than Sora sipping tea. 

“Now, Donald, we don’t want to be rude, do we. Now eat up, and we can wait for Miss Cruella to see us. Or do I have to chew yer there biscuit?”

Duck grumbles emerged as Donald began crunching the biscuit. 

Sora took a cup of tea, and a biscuit, gingerly sitting in a corner, the skin of the heartless defeated next to him. 

Donald swallowed the biscuit hard, then looked at Sora. “Where did you get all that from! I thought supply on adventurer’s bags was running low, but yours is so big!”

“Oh, its, uhhhh, the skin of a large body? I don’t know what it actually is, but it felt rude leaving it lying around? Should I have left it behind?” He didn’t quite want to further anger the already angry duck, thunder zipping through his fingers and his zippers. However, he raised his eyebrow, the thunder seizing, turning to frost as he looks at the kid. Before opening his mouth, Goofy interrupts. 

“Gee, that sounds mighty dangerous, whats a nenoneopheephifophyte like you fighting off those there heartless? And how? I thought they were impermeable to any mortal weapon?”

“Oh, uh, I have a...non mortal weapon I guess? Or at least I think its not mortal?”

The Metal Chocobo appeared in his hand, the weight making him falter before letting it rest on the ground. 

The frost sparked into a flame before Cruella came into the room, grandiose gestures and her voice exclaiming, “Hello Darlings! Your one and only tailor of the day Cr-my god what fine leather you have there! A-oh you are the boy with the keyblade, yes yes this is perfect!”

“O-oh? Yo-you know of me? How, I just got here!”

“Oh darling, you left a right mess in the second district, the largest supply of leathers, cloths, and shards we’ve seen since the Caribbean fell to darkness! Pirates were always too prone to darkness anyways, its good to be rid of them. And I see you have more! How much are you offering them for, A grand, 2, please speak up I can’t write the check if you are mum as a heart.”

“I...don’t have a bank account?”

There was the sound of the quill snapping, and a string of curses too quick for Sora to catch. 

“Well, thats alright, I suppose I will simply have to pay you in clothes, I suppose. You  _ are  _ going to be going on the whole interstellar voyage correct? Have any idea where you are off to?”

Donald cleared his throat, snapping his fingers to get the boom of lightning before speaking. “If you’ll give us a moment, ma’am, I’m sure you have to begin preparing and sorting the material, we don’t want it to degrade do we?”

With perhaps more force than necessary, he dragged goofy to the other room, and gave a look to Sora that necessitated him to follow. 

“So. You are the keyblade wielder. Do you at least know how to swing that thing? Cast a spell with it?”

“Uhhh...I know how to channel energy through the key to discover the truth?”

“Hmmm...seems accurate enough to the old texts. Lets see how well you can ‘sense’ as you say. Can you tell us which star has the greatest sound of darkness? Say yes and we’ll take you to whichever world you want to go.”

“You can travel through worlds! Hey, can I go wi-”

“Ah ah ah, first the world. The rest can be negotiated with fitting.”

There was a spark of hope for not the first time, hope blossoming in his heart. He closed his eyes in a daze, thoughts about helping his friends, saving them heavy on his mind. But first, he had to listen to the sky, like he had done on so many nights before, for the sounds that came from the door in the cave. 

The world quietened as each world sang its sang like they had so many times before, discordant now that he stopped ignoring the extra notes, but whic-

There. 

A world where growls and claws form the majority of the noise. 

He pointed to where the sound came from, and Goofy looked confused. 

“Uhh, Donald, what's the point of him pointing to a star? Didn’t we have that thingamajiggy piece of paper that told us what worlds are where?”

“We don’t know how close they are to falling, Goofy, so we would be wasting time if we went blindly. Even a dummy like you must know time is of the essence! If we can’t solve the heartless problem, how can we even hope to figure the king's wearabouts! Now, Wielder, let's go inside, discuss while we are fit. Like gentlemen.”

Sora seemed dragged along by Donald, whether by glare or by feather, into a room filled with empty rods of woods and vats bubbling away, peaks of black cloth rising over the edge. Cruella sits in the corner, unspooling the ropes of the large bodies, thin orange thread that looks quite fine hanging like gossamer thread from her fingers. 

“So, you have figured out the destination of your voyage? I presume you are interstellar voyagers by your lack of tact and fashion, for I would remember such a wretched jumpsuit as that even whiffing a stink about town.”

Donald took charge rather quickly, saying with as much air of authority as he can manage with that twisted speech of his, “Wonderland. I believe those materials are enough payment, and we shall take requests in order to have priority for any future requests. I assume you acquiesce? And for...what’s your name? I’m afraid I didn’t catch it.”

“Sora, m-“

“Great, Sora, I assume you have some request for us if we are to take you across the worlds?”

“Arms up darlings and stay still, measurements are rather sensitive for suits as extravagant as these.”

“Well, I’m looking for my friends, since I figure if I left the world all my friends should be out there! So I ask that you let me look for them while we are on the worlds!”

“Mmm...I can work with that.”

Goody then leaned down, just as Cruella measured Sora’s leg length, asking in hushed tones, “can we really keep that promise? Thought time was of the fragrance.”

“The kid’ll believe what he must. It should be fine.”

“Now, darlings, I’m sure your negotiations are fascinating but I have my own I must conduct. I thought the keyblade wielder would be a bit older, I must confess, but this works well enough. I’m sure you’ve noticed the grisly fate of the heartless you attack, no? Deflation, shattering, the whole 9 yards. Ruins the pelts as well, very little quality control.”

She finishes measuring Sora, using a weird stylus to write the letters in midair, before condensing it into a ball of light floating on her desk. She moved onto Donald, measuring the size of his head, then moving on.

“I have this trinket, think nothing of it, a bracelet that will automatically harvest, store and preserve those harvested bits. You’ll be able to access them with a few words, but they’ll be perfectly harvested, and if you give me permission, I can attach a sigil that lets me access them remotely. I’ll be able to ask you for skins, cords, what not and in return I’ll give you an outfit worthy of the Cruella Brand! Is that a solid deal or what!”

“I...sure? It sounds good, I think? But how will you use the gems that drop? They aren’t useful for a tailor, are they?”

“Ah, yes, I also have the moogle sigil so that the craftsguild can access the same materials too, the wretched bat winged competitors. Their little nubs can’t do the fine handiwork for drawing or something. Anyways! I simply have the most fabulous ideas darlings! Oh, we can give you a fabulous three piece suit, and for the duck, I simply must make a cloak! Ooh im so glad I got invited to that villain convention some years back to see the Red Queen’s ways! Every way is her way, unless its the Cruella way Darling, thats what I always say, straighten up your back, these measurements are vital for you, alas I never was invited back, suppose it had to do with my lack of plans or what not. Blast that Dark Council, I bet they are all woefully misdressed as we speak!”

There was a snap of the rope, and once again she wrote in midair, sending the ball of light to a desk once again before starting with Goofy. “You can find the bracelet over on the workbench, should be the only thing you see if my blasted security work as it should. Lucid Crystals last a lifetime, they said, born from stars so it works like stars. Pathetic, Pathetic I say! Barely can tell of its on, pro-”

“Found it.”

“Ah. Seems that the knowledge evades me even now, well. Well I’m a tailor by trade, not a thinker! Simply put it on your wrist and it will lock onto your magic signature or some sort of wizardry, ask the moogles for details, if you could remove your cap sir, but you ought to be able to feel its effects in your mind. A sort of click that you use to check what you have and whatnot. You’ll figure it out when you put it on,why am I explaining. I’ll finish measuring the dog and I’ll be able to inprint the sigils darling, just wait a second.”

  
  


Sora was honestly a bit intimidated by the woman with a presence that could fill a room, barely biting out the found it as she was in the middle of her tirade, her coat hanging loosely as she wrote down a third ball of light. He put on the gray circlet, feeling it tighten, turning a vibrant gold as the bracelet seemed to fuse with his skin, or nearly, the band of gold barely a hair thick and skin tight, yet felt comfortable to move. He touched it with his left hand, and felt a buzz in his head. ‘Please apply sigils before attempting to use Moogle Brand Collector’s Bracelet’. It was kinda weird, he had to admit, but it didn’t feel  _ wrong _ . And that, most of all, felt quite wrong. 

“Ah, yes, I see your trying it out, do hold still for a second. This won’t be painful unless you make it, in which case it will be incredibly painful. Of course you’d have to try very hard, because I am Cruella DeVille, whos fingers are quicker than your school boy jitters.”

She ran her hand over her desk, and almost like a magician’s slight of hand, appeared two little jewels, and a sewing needle made of a yellowish clear crystal. 

“Now, for the Tailor’s sigil, I impart thee the harvest of cloths and ornaments, for trade and prosperity, yaddi yaddi yadda yadda, signed by Cruella DeVille, Master Tailor of Light.”

She looked bored during the incantation, one of the small jewels beginning to glow green, before taking a puff from her cigarette, and putting the jewel above the band. Taking her needle, she began to sew it into the metal? A small strand of metal began being pulled from the band, going through the eye, but the rest was too quick for him to see, stitches seeming to appear in nine as she sewed, muttering in some tongue unknown to him, the jewel melting into the metal that was slowly wrapped around it, slowly flattening into a sigil, a stylized needle and spool. Beginning to repeat the whole pattern with the next jewel, a hammer coated with flames, signed by one “Master of the Guild Mogho Moogle”. 

Suddenly, there was the sound like thunder, and Sora was lost in thought. 

“Initiating Collection Algorithm. Creating inventory slots. Thank you for trusting The Guild of Light with your collecting needs. Return to reality.”

There was a moment when reality was sparking yellows, but then Sora blinked, and everything was normal. 

“Yes, it seemed to go well. Wait in the antechamber, and ready your world order spell. The clothes will be done soon enough, and with some of the shards you brought me I can perfect the fit through magic. If I don’t do it lord knows I might as well burn the measurements.”

And so Sora returned, with two allies? Potential friends? At his side, and hope in his heart. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jiminy’s Journal
> 
> On Lucid Materials: They say that the void outside of the lanes between is deep, dark and vast, and that once upon a time, there were people with faces that were empty, clear as glass, like water. It was said that they walked upon a few places of our world, before returning. This is nothing but a fairy tale, however, the so called landing sites seem to always correspond with where emptiness is crystallized. Lucid Materials form near the edges of the world, near the top of it. Heartless that hold these materials are often empty, versions that are off from a real being, or dead or emotionless.  
> Lucid Materials are able to be used for spells of invisibility, able to project their void, and with more magical experience, can influence gravity and space, to the point where a Crystal in the right hands could bend the Ways in Between. There is, however, a difference between the Emptiness and Void of Lucid Materials, and Nothing. Nothing is a thing with no self, a thing lacking existence that consumes the existence of other things to sustain its façade. Lucid Materials are made of emptiness, the lack of anything, there is no thing, for it is between things, and is docile, stable, leading to the rarity of natural lucid materials.  
> The Shard, a sliver of magic sullen with the void of space.  
> The Stone, imbued with the last flames of dying stars  
> The Gem, a fine jewel that can barely contained the void within.  
> And Lucid Crystals are formed of pure emptiness.
> 
> On Large Bodies: The Large Bodies are a very interesting heartless, serving many functions if one can manage to tame these embodiments of gluttony. Formed by those with all consuming gluttony, not just for food but for any of the things life offers, such as Riches, Pleasure, but perhaps their favorite prey is those that search for darkness. One of the first heartless seen, they seem to be extremely functional, if a higher power is controlling them. In nature, they will act like any other heartless, seeking those gluttonous hearts, but in an Army, they will cannibalize heartless for rare stones and gems, and can act as a storage compartment for heartless even without cannibalizing them, their stomachs larger than what their already prodigious appearance would suggest on the inside. Perhaps they were design with this in mind, a tactical weapon able to take many great minds from their opponents and able to act as bastions of their forces, being near invulnerable, except for one flaw. The Cloth on their back is so tense, being pushed both by the belly and their belly based attacks, that when hit in their back these dark Tartare’s will proceed to break, their large health reserves depleting much more rapidly. However, this can make them lock onto whoever attacks them, and they will engage in a rage that charges their large mass a fair distance
> 
> Notes on the Kingdom Key, 1 and 2: A most bizarre keyblade, tied to Light as we know it, it is a keyblade that enjoys the benefit of range, where when actualized it is able to shoot Light without consuming energy, and this is shown by its forms, balanced between the physical and magical like the keyblade itself. 
> 
> Its first form is of bladed boomerangs, named Regal Blades, and is one of the sharpest forms that the keyblade can take. The boomerangs; while being able to be coated with magic, are unable to let that magic fly by itself, needing the same combos to actually let it take effect. However, they do automatically go where the wielder imagines them to go, allowing for increased mobility if used correctly. 
> 
> On Metal Chocobo: Metal Chocobo: A keyblade born out a deep pervading sense of loneliness, it is built on the connections Sora feels willing to make. When first appearing, it was as much tied by grief as Sora was, giving the club like blade a much greater weight. However, even as it tried, it could not hide the great physical power this keyblade has, at its peak able to shatter any armor.


	7. Into the Fire, Fresh from the Shop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sora Learns Magic! Or tries very hard. 
> 
> He gets a new outfit, and learns about the magic for non sorcerers as well!
> 
> (I want him I don’t Care I need him I don’t care about anything else i can’t if im with you ill be fineiwantyouineedyoutheworldwon’thurtmeifidon’tcareimImpervious)

Sora was a simple kid at heart, really. He cared about his friends, he believed in Santa, he’s traumatized by the collapse of his world. The usual reactions to being a kid, albeit with the Caveat that Sora really is older for some of these traits. (Santa Claus. Ridiculous.)

Among these, is a fascination with Magic. This isn’t all that surprising, a samong many things, magic is one of the most spectacular things in stories, alongside fancy swords and splendid cloaks. It was the stuff of fairy tales. 

This all lead to his current fascination with the Duck in the waiting chamber, watching him as he plucked a feather from beneath his vest, asking for a piece of paper from Anita, and pulling out a vial labeled “M. Goo, test required”. 

Donald looked up from whatever he was doing, and looked at Sora. “You don’t know about magic, right? As much as I try to explain it, but it's not as easy as just, getting the element. There's a whole art, a philosophy.”

There was an excruciatingly painful glare from Donald, and a following “And you don’t seem to be much of a thinker all things considered.”

There was a muted complaint from Goofy, something about manners, but Sora responded before he could hear anything. 

“But I can try real hard! And, if I believe in myself I’ll eventually master it, right?”

“No. Magic isn’t just...an energy. Its a Mage’s relation to reality. A knight can change reality through strength of mind, strength of heart. A mage can change it through the Truth, and altering said truth through thought and conviction. Before we even get to that, lets see if you even have the magical strength to do so. Please, sit on the other side of this table.”

Sora sat down as commanded, watching as Donald took the pen from Anita, and put the feather on his palm (?), black ink rising through the quill, patterning the quill with black stripes, turning the feather more and more elaborate. 

There was a quick breath by Anita, and Sora turned to look. She held her hand to her mouth, and a tear dropped. She shook her head. Sora, not wanting to disturb Donald, whispered to her, “Are you ok?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, its just...we lost our puppies when our world fell. We had 99 little dalmatian puppies, and now they are out there, lost, all alone. And sometimes, I can’t help but see them in the strangest of places. But don’t you worry about it, you’re our guest I shouldn’t have told you this much.”

“No, no its fine. Say, since we’re traveling the worlds, what if we bring your Dalmations back with us? Would that be fine?”

“Oh, no no don’t concern yourself with me I-“

“I insist, please. You’ve been so nice, I can’t be mean back.”

“Oh...please wait here I need to get something.”

“Focus, Sora!”

Sora looked down, and the quill was now inky black and much more luxurious, now a plume fit for a cap. He had begun unfolding the paper, even though it had already been unfolded, expanding to take over the table. 

He began to move the quill with confidence Sora had not seen before, even without ink the plume left a trail of ink soaking into the paper, some small lettering and ornaments appearing as the ink dried, forming an intricate pattern of bold lines surrounding a central circle, smaller circles with stars on them appearing on top. 

“There, that should hold your magic. Now, you can hear Truth or some bullcrap like that, correct? Listen to this circle, and tell me if it changes.”

Donald held out a hand, looking at Sora. 

Sora obeyed, closing his eyes with a grin on his face. He was going to learn magic! Oh yes…

The circle was weirdly enough making a ringing noise to Sora’s ear, something that usually nothing without a heart could make. However, it rang hollow to his ears. 

The voice of the Kingdom Key spoke up. 

“Ah, meditation, a worthwhile venture. Perhaps the Duck has more knowledge than I thought.”

Metal Chocobo also spoke, annoyingly enough. “Perhaps it’s that no person, world or thing ever does live up to your standards.”

“Silence, you are not at all aware of Magic, you should not speak. Now, Sora, you hear the noise of unrealized magic correct? Now feel your own flow of magic, the still dance of combat that we practiced.”

There was pulse all of a sudden. 

The power within him, faint, yet rhythmic. 

“There is a word that is wanted for the harmony. A note of reality, a Truth that you feel with your bones, that will desire to emerge. Like you once did so crudely on those caves long ago, when you locked the door.”

The two songs, Sora’s and the circles, began singing together, just off from harmony. 

Sora had never been trained for music, but he had a decent voice and ear, able to sing along with the radios on the island. 

And so he began to sing with his voice to harmonize with the magics. 

First, a voice from the outside- “QUACK WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU-wait. It’s working? Wait...not quite. Little Dissonance, yet no Truth emerging. Perhaps this is the Art of the keyblade.”- then from the inside -“Boy, do not mess with me! I asked for a truth, not the sound of it! Think, what is this note! Reality is a symphony and Truths are its notes! Think, and let the word escape you!”

Sora thought as he sang, the magics beginning to speak in his thoughts, not like speech but more akin to concepts. 

Reversal, Repair, Material, Fortune Lost Regained. 

And suddenly, Sora had the word. 

“Restore”

Suddenly, the black lines glowed silver, rising off the page and spinning like crystallized light, the stars growing and blowing into a full star map, with a sphere growing where the central circle is. 

Donald hums as he sees the circle. Rather advanced, he expected the ink to move and nothing more. An ear for magic he may indeed have, considering the purity of the magic. And stable too.

The keyblade trained him well, perhaps. 

He opened the bottle of mysterious goo he received, pouring it onto the central circle. The goo swirled around in the center, the goo forming a web between the stars, a sigil of restoration, of disturbed magic returned to right. 

The pockets in donald’s pockets glowed, their gold getting shinier, and suddenly dipping form weight in them. From inside one, Donald pulled out his Staff, and with a look of self satisfaction, it seemed to have worked. He called out in some tongue Sora didn’t know, and the ritual collapsed into a small glass orb, with swirling cosmos around a golden center. 

“Didn’t expect to make a charm, must admit, the keyblade is a mighty channeler. That's enough practical for today. Lets talk about the fundamentals. What is magic, you think?”

“Magic is just energy, right? Its energy guided by the truth of the universe.”

“I was correct in assuming you weren’t a thinker. There is no truth to the whole universe. Every world has its own Truth, and that Truth is incomparable within its own world. If in one world a stack of playing cards is an army and in another a game, depending on where you take a card will determine how it will exist. These truths and their consequences protect worlds from outside threats, like these heartless, and are what form the concept of the World Order, and the series of rules we must follow to maintain it.”

“Ok, yeah, sure, makes sense.” There was absolutely no confusion or dread at the thought of shattered truth. Nope. He refused to engage with them. 

Donald looked at Sora with Suspicion, but continued anyway. “Magic, is the superimposition of a personal truth over the universal truth, to combine the two in the mage’s favor. A Mage’s word is more true in any world than the world’s truth in the whole universe, because its a projection of a personal truth.”

“But, isn’t a personal truth more liable to change than a real truth? Like, an irrefutable truth?”

“Didn’t I already explain how there is no obj-“

“Yeah but, there has to be. There has to be some fact that the whole world shares. It...It can’t just all be up to perspective, right?”

“It's not perspective, it's personal truths! There's a difference between ‘I Love this person’ and ‘I think my ice cream is more green than blue’! Lord I’m so glad I never got into TEACHING.”

“Well, yeah, but Love isn’t. Real. Its not tangible. Its something you only know in your heart, in a dream, but that won’t be as real as a log or a fruit! I love my friends, but that didn’t help me any!”

“Thats because you didn’t cast a spell, silly. Love is as real as anything, but sometimes it needs a push to be as physically present as iron or crystal. And thats the projection part of magic. You must project that truth, allow your truth to become part of the fabric.”

“Well, I mean, not to brag, but I did manage to do that spell circle with no training and no truth or whatever, all I did was say a word.”

“I MADE THAT EASY ON PURPOSE YOU PU-calm down donald. Teacher. Good Teacher. Patience. Sora. You couldn’t even light a fire if you tried. You probably aren’t even engaging with your emotions half the time, too busy thinking you should feel one way!”

“Oh yeah? I bet you I can cast a prettier fire than you can!”

“Its on, Sora!”

His feathers were now emanating embers almost like a twilight glow. 

Sora summoned Metal Chocobo, and tried to feel that same pulse he felt with the kingdom key, but was caught by surprise by how inert it felt. The pulse was weaker...maybe he should switch?

But how did he do that. 

Well, If magic is truth. Then maybe he just has to think of the magic in the kingdom key?

Metal Chocobo is slow, physical, like a downpour, nothing like the waltz of light. 

So if he just, felt the kingdom key in his hands…

Suddenly, the weight felt a lot lighter, and he had the kingdom key. 

Great! Now he just had no start a fire. 

Donald looked at him with confusion, before shaking his head and pointing at Goofy. “Count us down, be useful for something!”

“Well, Gawrsh, i would think I am useful for something, but uhh, counting really isn-“

“Its counting to 3 its fine goofy.”

  
  


“Well if you insist.”

  
  


Sora focused his energy on the tip of the blade, and just beyond it. Maybe? It sounded different. 

Fire. There will be a fire. 

I believe there is a fire. 

Maybe imagery?

“One-.”

He began to imagine the heat from the flame, the bright light, the little burst of air that came from flame, the crackling. 

“Two!”

Maybe he needed to say a word?? That worked the last time so maybe this time?

“Two and a half!!”

He would beat this duck. He WOULD he refuses to be outdone by a Stranger! He will cast the spell!

“Two and 3 quarters…….”

“Are you not so sure anymore, Sora?”

“Oh its on Donald!”

“THREE!”

Sora called out Fire, and managed to produce a small flicker of flame on the end of the keyblade, almost like that of a candle. He did it! Haha!

Donald, meanwhile, summoned a ball of flame the size of his fist with a snap, which began orbiting him to reveal more balls. 

“Big mouth for an apprentice, don’t you think?”

“Hey, I got a fire after half an hour of knowing magic existed, ok? I personally think I am doing perfectly fine, thank you very much! More isn’t necessarily better…”

“Now Donald, I know you take pride in your magic, but you didn’t learn to cast a fire spell for 35 minutes, I do think Sora has got you beat in speed.”

“I was able to cast a ball of fire the first time, not that spark!”

“Haha! Donald just doesn’t want to admit that there’s someone better than him! Na, nanana, na!”

“If you want to get real flames, learn the Crimson Creed, maybe you’ll figure out the meaning of its random words:

Fire Fire burns without desire,

Lights the world, in the lamps old rise,

Burns on oil born from life,

But Hearts Desire lives for Long, 

When fed with water and truth and rum. 

Have fun with that!”

“Fire Fire Burns?? What kinda joke is that! It doesn’t make sense, water burning bright?? Is that what magic is?”

“Who's the teacher? I am. Think about that poem and report when you make a fireball worth casting!”

The small voice from the kingdom key made a weird noise, and began to speak softly, “Didn’t expect him to know that rhyme. Thought it would be lost…”

Suddenly, Anita popped in, holding something within her hands, and the conversation stopped as they looked at the demure housewife. 

“Ah, there you are! Sora. Please, if you go after the puppies...its the least I can pay you back. We found this gem a few years back, about 8 or so years. We kept it because of no reason, but no one would buy it since it couldn’t be used in any synthesis. But...please. We want you to have it as payment! To put so much effort for a strangers request...I couldn’t let you do it with no reward.”

She pressed a weird black jewel into his hand, almost perfectly round. “I think some people have called it a Materia. Maybe you’ll be able to use it, but please. I have to reward you for this selfless act. Helping others deserves a good act in turn, no?”

Sora held the materia in hand, too stunned by it to speak. It was pitch black, and yet it sung a song that felt right, and began to try to thank Anita. “Its nothing, -I can’t accept- I-“

“Please. I insist. You can’t be sticking your neck out for a stranger, at least with no reward! Its unbecoming.”

“Uhh, sorry to interrupt, but fellas, is it getting hot in here?”

“Oh, I didn’t want to concern anyone but it did seem to be getting hot.”

Sora had a creeping suspicion, and looked at Donald. 

“Donald, why is it hot.”

“Its the Fire.”

* * *

  
  


In a castle of light, where steam flows like blood and darkness has made its brood, there is a meeting occurring with the greatest evils the worlds had seen, and then some. 

“When’s that preposterous queen arriving? I thought all ways were her ways? Is there no way for her to be on time?”

“Oh I wouldn’t trust a word that woman says, she’s loonier than me, and I’m already at the limit of my sack!”

“Aye, but she be the first to die to the keyblade wielders plight!” 

“You speak of me behind my back! I could have your head if I were so inclined!”

The chatter was interrupted by the screech of maleficent’s claws (nails?) on the stone, tapping her staff once to fill the room with green light, the sickly smoke pouring from the pipes. 

“We are all assembled it seems. We are here to discuss the greatest threat yet. The keyblade wielder. Sora.”

“What is there to discuss? He can’t play Croquet, and is trespassing to boot! Off with his head!”

“Now now deary, its not so simple! I’m sure there’s something in our world thats locked behind an impenetrable seal! My contract, for example, forcing me to be but sea water!”

“Aye, and how does a key free you? I may be a pirate but even I know keys aren’t used to sign contracts!”

“Oh, but if its bound by the power of the keyblade it can be unbound, fool!”

“And yet we are as likely to fall to his powers. I must raise this issue again, but are we not playing with fire? The wielder could simply choose to attack us, or may be lacking in strength. We are as good as pincushions.”

“QUIET! We have already decided to let the boy live, or at least to not crush him immediately. And so, I believe we should begin preparations. Or would you rather the child enter your world and to simply take your power.”

“Oogie Boogie is eternal! I am Fear! And Dread! And a 10 to 12 gambling addiction!! I fear nothing but the darkness riling me up till my seams split!”

“I concur, I simply see no threat against a Queen! Whatever stick they draw will be whittled to short!”

“I won’t have the mangey brat on my ship, will I? If so, I feel confident I can keep up my duties. No Gummi Ship can match the speed of the Jolly Roger!”

“Speaking of duties, Maleficent, I must ask again, why must we have the Queen? She has failed to procure her light, and will be in a prime position to reveal our secrets. Even Hades takes better care of his debts.”

“Without me you would be unable to access the realm of darkness! You would have to rely on that foul sack already beheaded to even summon more heartless! Only 3 people can navigate the ways, and among them we want one sleeping and one would never interfere with the order!”

“Ok. Ok, are we gonna get serious about this whole, duties thing? Because if so may I ask what Oogie Boogie is doing? He is barely providing hearts, I’ve had to make 5 extra shippings and the Final World is growing hungry. And I, for one, do not want to see death Hungry.”

“Well me oh my, maybe if we hadn’t sent, oh, a few squadrons against the kid we are trying to keep **alive** I would have the heartless to gather fear with!”

The green light flashed again. From the pipes came a rumbling, and in a swirl of green smoke emerged a Boy, sleeping. 

“There is another matter. This boy, Riku, is now under my tutelage under the gracious patronage of our renaître ne sais quois Ansem Seeker of Darkness, the not wise one.”

“Classy, Elegant, and cutting deep. What's the issue.”

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to coddle you babies as much as I have a new baby to coo over. For this child shall be joining us as an...enforcer.”

“My my my! Care for me to learn his greatest fear? It might be bugs, or perhaps the darkness! Ooh, or perhaps there will be DADDY ISSUES!”

“Can’t that empty sack of bugs be serious for even one meeting. Please, someone, get the adoption papers before I burn him up. I beg of you. I’ll give you 3, no, 6 drachma.”

“I would not be opposed to finding his greatest fear. His darkness is so vast, its difficult to pry into it to spawn heartless. Too many darknesses all swirling together, if I approached it with any carelessness his heart would be consumed, and our benefactor would be quite displeased.”

“Well Well Well, mr Looord of the Dead, look who’s a bum now! Lets see...oh crawlies, creepy and otherwise!”

The disgusting swarm of bugs and shadows (the not heartless kind) emerge from the seams of stone, surrounding Riku, as the Villain approaches him. He reached deep, pulling out a blue bug that he placed on the boy’s forehead. The shadows and bugs began moving in strange ways, and the Boogie Man scratched his scene. 

“This kid is so infatuated, so obsessed, with this boy dear god its sickening, sickening I tell you. Oh but whats this? A fear of losing him so great he sold his world to be the only two, together. My my, is that guilt? Is that, perchance, a Vice enough for a Heartless, of great Maleficent.”

“That’s plenty. I believe I know what dear young Sora will do before leaving. Dismissed. And Queen of Hearts, do remember: you are the next on his path. Be ready.”

She plucked a strand of darkness from the child, spinning it as it gains a metallic sheen. Growing, almost like glass, it disappears in a coat of green before it grows any more. 

* * *

“Darlings, please stop clowning around and come in, I want to make some final measurements for these c-is that smoke I smell? I will not hesitate to impale you upon my needle if you so much as DARE to ruin that rug! Oh, or hurt Anita or Roger, or whatever they value. Come in Come In and put that dreadful fire out.”

Donald swished his staff, sighing as all the fire pooled into the void between the hat and cloth, and Sora didn’t think they were on good enough terms to ask where it disappeared to. 

They entered the tailoring studio, and were swirled into the drama of Cruella’s designs, put onto pedestals as she put on loose fitting clothes on Sora, and much tighter clothes on Donald and Goofy. 

“Hey, why are mine so loose?”

“Darling, you’re due for puberty in, what. 3,4 months? You’ll grow right out of it if I didn’t allow for give in the cut. Of course I’ll have to check your full grown proportions, now that you remind me… Hold Still.”

She held up a green jewel to Sora’s head, then tapped her needle against it as she moved it around. She seemed to be seeing, something, in the sparkles that emerged every tap she gave it, before seeing the look of curiosity. She sighed, before beginning to talk. 

“Boy, as a show of gratitude for the gems you bring me, I figure I can at least explain the basis of materials. See, this needle, its made from Fleeting Materials by a moogle. Named it 9 stitch because of wordplay, since a Stitch in Time saves 9, and this stitches in time. And the Soothing Gem is a gift from a Sorcerer, able to see the growth of people for when there are multiple forms or puberty to go through. Meant to save me the trouble of figuring out where I could anchor the magic when he shapeshifted. It is because these materials have...some sort of element in them that they are able to do anything. There, that satisfied your curiosity right? Now stop looking as I adjust your outfit.”

Sora was about to say oh, before realizing that would be moving, and standing absolutely still. Maybe that Black Materia could be used for something like that? It makes as much sense as anything. He wondered what those other gems and knick knacks he gave Cruella had. Some came to mind easily, like the thunderous yellow and purple stones had to be some form of storm or lightning. Maybe thunder. What else could be in-is that why these clothes were being sought after by rich mages and knights? Because it had magic sewed in? 

What was magic, really. Donald said it was truth, but it didn’t _feel_ like that energy inside of him was some form of Truth. But it had to interact with it, right? That’s how he can hear the names of others, the heartless before they appear. But he can’t, change the truth, right? The truth was material. An apple is an apple is an apple. But that thing Donald said nagged at him. 

He supposed a Peasant, a Horse and a Noble wouldn’t see the apple the same. The peasant would see the apple as precious food, the Horse as a cool snack, and the Noble as decoration. But the apple was still an apple, right? They would all think that its an apple. And the rest would all be after thoughts. Their feelings about it don’t alter the truth. 

“Darling, while I adjust the other’s clothes, speak with the Moogle over in the other room, he is in the first door to the right over there. He has a request for you or some garbage, he can explain materials better than I can.”

Sora walked off in his new suit, before it faded and returned to Cruella. “Not yet! I still must stitch the final pieces. It’ll be done after you finish talking to the moogle. Now be off I have no time for your dallying.”

She took a drag from her cigarette, the smoke almost pushing Sora away as he coughed, trying to clear it from the air as he walked down the hallway. He missed the fit of the suit, his old clothes feeling baggy and weird now. Which was weird. 

Did the heartless always feel so comfortable?

* * *

  
  


“Ah, you’re here! May I ask your name?”

“Sora. The name is Sora.”

“Names Mogole, kupo, ambassador of the Guild of Moogle Creation and Synthesization.”

“Oh...should I address you as sir, then?”

“No need, but please, sit.”

The room was rosy and warm, the fireplace keeping the place well lit as Sora sat in the velvet seat. He suddenly wanted to disappear. 

“So, as you may have surmised from Cruella’s scattered thinking, kupo, you are here because we want crystals. Materials. Crystals, the sort of thing that a Heartless drops. I see cruella gave you our sigil, kupo. Then I assume you know about collections and all that, yes?”

“Uh, yeah. Sorta. I’m still new to the whole, worlds heartless threats concept, so even if you did explain it would probably...go over my head? But I did have a question. How do the heartless have such important things in the first place?”

“Well, I believe I overheard Cruella talk about the basics. Materials are crystalline elements of the universe, kupo. There’s the magical truths, of course, then the abstract, the existential, the nothing, kupo. The universe has so much of these concepts, that sometimes they spill out in places associated with them, birthing the materials. We can then use them to feed machines, contraptions, spells, Kupo, as they are the purest form of these components that we can use. I wanted to ask for a specific material, infact!”

“Wait, how am I supposed to recognize the material, if I barely know of the concept of materials in the first place!”

“You are a magic user, kupo. With that bracelet, they should reveal themselves with scan, kupo!”

“Scan? Is that a spell?”

“Its how you determine the fundamental truths, has that mage not taught yo-“

“OOOH that! Huh! Anything else I should learn about it, aside from it looking snazzy?”

“Well I don’t know, kupo, I didn’t make it now did I? Materials I know, but post synthesis all my bets are off kupo.”

“Oh. Well. For next time then. Anyways, what was the request?”

“See, you know how materials are needed to fuel machinery? We need some to fuel our furnace, kupo.”

“Why not use a normal fire?”

“Because Fire is filled with stray elements, a stray memory here, an existential dread there, kupo, it would ruin it. Blazing shards, kupo, are clean. Their flame is pure and not disturbing any other materials.”

“O-kay, makes sense, I guess. Oh, and another qui-”

“Ah ah ah, first we sign the deal, then the unrelated question, kupo!”

“Ah right. How do we sign the deal? I don’t have a pe-“

“Don’t worry. The guild is ready, kupo.”

From his pom pom he pulled out a scroll, which unfurled itself and floated to Sora’s hand.

“All Guild requests are to be notated for updates on the status, kupo. Simply press your thumb on the wax seal, and that will be enough.”

Sora looked strangely, before taking the paper. It was titled “REQUEST” at the top, with script foreign to Sora filling in a short but dense paragraph, before a spreadsheet of materials unfurled beneath, with the top row being understandable to him. On the corner there was a bit of rainbow wax, which sora pressed his thumb on. 

It glowed for a second, morphong, but as Sora pulled it away, it revealed a sigil with a crown in its center, stained glass like that of his dreams holding many heart symbols, a wreath around the crown.

“Thank you, kupo! Your question, then?”

“Oh, right! I discovered this sto-“

As he was pulling out the Black Materia, the moogle squeaked, hiding. 

“Take that weapon a-wait. Materia don’t work kupo. Sorry, habit.”

“As I was saying, I was wondering if there was some way to use it in Synthesis?”

“Well, the only way I can think of is an old moogle recipe, but we don’t know how they work, kupo. Legend has it that keyblades could be upgraded with materials like those, kupo, but we’ve tried according to the ancient recipes, but without mass produced keychains from communing with worlds, or the prophesied recipes, the recipes are a bit tricky. Unless you have...metal chocobo? I believe? I believe a black materia to shatter the binds of sorrow was in the pro-“

“I have that one! Wait, does that mean its not unique?”

“Well, not quite, kupo. The keyblade is very much unique, kupo, because it isn’t from then. Keyblades are different now. Evolved. So many were lost that they came back different, not quite perfect anymore, binding and clinging to hearts, kupo. At least that's what grand kupo says.”

Sora summoned Metal Chocobo, looking at it. “Huh. Anyways, can you bring them together? Can you, upgrade the keyblade or something?”

“Kupo, moogles can only see the recipes. Keyblades are personal, kupo, so they require growth from the wielder now.”

“So, I have to grow to get stronger? Thats not fair, I won’t be tall for months!”

“No, no, personal growth. The keyblades rely on the internal truth more than reality, all things considered, kupo.”

Oh. 

Well then. 

“Thanks, I guess. I, I guess we’re done here then?”

“Well I suppose so. Lets hope that the cigarette smoke has cleared up, at least.”

* * *

  
  


As Sora walked back into the workshop, the smoke had settled on the ground, heavy and viscous in a manner not dissimilar to water. 

On three mannequins were the outfits that had just been measured, and Sora was entranced. 

His own was a 3 piece suit, with a white jacket emblazoned with the 4 suites on the lily white cloth, the insides lined with red fabric, leading off into coat tails down back, the inner vest being a much darker gray with its own set of coat tails over admittedly simply black pants. 

There was also a complex 2 robe garment, with the bottom vest being built on deep marine blues, inlaid with gold and some sort of weird fabric that seemed to react to Donald when he got close, while the upper layer is much more vibrant, the blue cloak being tied by a Diamond clasp, and decorated with golden diamonds down the shoulder seams. 

The last outfit was the tallest of the three, having a few similarities to Sora’s, such as its shirt being a similar color to his vest, albeit maybe a bit darker, but with some new elements like the jade buttons beneath an Ascot that almost looked like the club suite. With a similar green color was the much smaller vest, clearly meant to be an accent piece rather than actual clothing, since it was barely half the height of the shirt. The Pants were a black as well, and there was a little top hat. 

“I believe I’ve fulfilled my end of the promise, now do as you will with the outfits, I don’t know what spell you are using but it's none of my concern. Take them into-ah, you’re done. Now get out, I have finished and taken my pay. If you can get some of the Vulture’s feathers from Wonderland. Now shoo! I have to prepare the rest of the things you’ve brought me! Shoo!”

Sora reached for the outfit, but Donald pulled out a locket, and the outfits disappeared in the sparkle. He checked the almost watch, tapping it to check something, before turning around to look at Sora. 

“Are you ready to go? We should be able to get to the gummi sh-“

They were all interrupted by some great roar in the distance. 

It was metallic. 

And it was very close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jiminy’s Journal:
> 
> Blazing Materials are not the most common, but are among the most simple of materials, holding little in them but flame. While incredibly useful , they are often seen only in machinery as sources of mechanical energy in conjunction with materials of Frost, in order to manage temperature. In Heartless, it displays the ability to allow them to begin using fire almost as well as their bodies.  
> However, one peculiarity is where this crystal is found. Most Famously, battlefields, harvested from the clusters that emerged from the pooling blood. For this reason its often an important archeological discovery. However, they are also found in places of extreme heat, such as Deserts, often a few miles away from water, growing as it feeds from the sun.  
> Some people claim that when gazing into these jewels, you can see the perspective of those around you, what they treasure and such, based on the shadows it casts.  
> Shard: A sliver of magic warm to the touch  
> Stone: Imbued with the heat of the heart.  
> Gem: A jewel barely able to contain the ferocity of its flames  
> Crystal: A Perfectly Pure accumulation of Flame.
> 
> Soothing Materials, also known as Bright, are very common materials, and integral to many of the explorations that occur elsewhere. Emerging wherever goodwill abounds, as in towns, or where life is at its strongest, deep in woods or swamps, they have an integral connection to life, and some people claim that the Cure spell draws from a similar power source. The soothing material’s use as a potion seems to only confirm this.  
> This material is often found in many heartless, able to anchor their forms into living materials, taking animalistic forms or the ability to heal other heartless. Aside from potions, they can be used in many spells and workshops due to the trail of light they can leave behind if enchanted, and other temporary markings. They are also useful in providing light, able to make any life glow, and give the brightest light many will ever be able to see, and many claim it will burn away illness, refertilizes the soil.  
> The Shard, a sliver of magic growing from fertile soil  
> The Stone, imbued with the verdant life of a plant  
> The Gem, a fine jewel that can barely contain its healthy glow  
> Crystals formed from pure shining Life.
> 
> Fleeting Materials are, as the name suggests, are among the most unstable materials, rapidly decaying into the Power family of materials. These jewels are rare to find, only appearing either in children’s hands, covered in hunny (they claim that pooh gave them) or near the end or beginning of a world’s story, or in world’s fixed in time, such as Halloween Town or Neverland, where time ceases to be. Some claim that they form where time does not flow, and some claim that time doesn’t flow due to their presence. Whatever the case, once taken, the material quickly begins losing potency unless in the hand of a mage with a stabilizing spell, at which point it becomes usable. It is often tied to heartless able to manipulate the flow of time, able to cast rather powerful spells like Stop and Slow.  
> As should be rather obvious, these gems are born from the same magic that forms Stop, and is incredibly useful in its ability to control time. With calibration, a Crystal has been said to make a year into a second, and not be drained. They seem to never sap the vitality of those using them as well, unlike the magic from which they are born.  
> Shard: A sliver of magic that when crushed can stop time for a second  
> Stone: A splintered stone that is able to repeat or stop time for a minute  
> Gem: A fine jewel able to manipulate an hour of your time  
> Crystal: A miraculous crystal formed of pure Time
> 
> Cruella DeVille: First Appearance; 101 Dalmations  
> This lithe woman is an addict at her core, pursuing earthly pleasure with her excess of wealth and power that she had always had. Before the fall of her world, she had become addicted to dog pelts, forming the fairy tale that first created her world.  
> However, as Time moved on, she gained a new addiction: the pelts of the new interlopers, the Heartless, of much greater quality than any hides she already had, and due to the lack of dogged pursuit over the pelts, her World fell apart, leading her, Roger and Anita to enter Traverse Town, along with 101 Dalmatians.  
> However, this summary ignores her main addiction: Tailoring. A fine hand with any needle, hook or thread, finest among the lands I’ve seen at least, she craves for a new project at every waking moment, often taking any requests that she hears through any means, if to at least satisfy her urge for style. They say that every draft of her cigarettes is a new idea she is committing to the air, only viewable to her in mania.  
> Say what you will but her work is fine, employed by kings and queen, only matched by the masters of the Guild.


	8. Apathy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Denial. Rejection. Self Righteousness. 
> 
> I deserve Sora’s love.

Riku woke up to a sky of stars, gasping for breath. 

There was only one thought pressing through his skull. 

Sora. 

Where was he. 

He had to be safe. 

“Finally awake, my dear? I am so terribly sorry for the dizziness, the falling of worlds takes a toll on many.”

“Where’s Sora! He...He promised that Sora would be safe!”

“Calm down, child. Sora is safe, simply elsewhere.”

“Wait, who are you! How do you know Sora!!”

“I am with the Shadow Man you made a deal with.”

The lady stepped out of shadow, her cloak sweeping in some invisible wind, the purple overtaking the corner that he was in. Her gaunt face was almost a sickly green, her eyes too big her lips too small, she felt almost wrong. With one clawed hand she reached to touch Riku’s face, her red nails almost luminous with the purple ring on her hand. 

“Let me take a look at you, child, else how else shall I be able to assist you. The Shadow Man took great pride in you, even if he was too cloudy to notice it. Ansem was always a fool…”

“Ansem….is that his name? He...he destroyed our world. He broke. His promise.”

“He did not dear, we shall go and find Sora as soon as you are ready. The worlds are thick, devouring with darkness, and a heart as pure as yours needs to be taught to protect itself before it seeks your friend.”

“I knew my heart was pure! But...Ansem...the man said he would give me great power as we left. What power is it! I need it!”

“Alas, I am no oracle, I need rest and time to look beyond these walls. But I can assure you, my child, we will find him.”

There was a pause after ‘my child’, the two hearing what she was suggesting. 

Maleficent, of course, knew the truth before Riku. 

  
  


She was a lying oracle, afterall. 

  
  


Riku, suspicious of the one offering safety, but was too blinded by the hope of finding Sora to really care. 

“Alright, whatever you say…”

The hand stroked his face with more love than anyone had before, but it was cold, the tattered cloak tickling him as she brought his face closer to hers. 

“Perhaps we can find another potential within you. Assuming that the other man was wrong. If you want to, dear child.

For Sora, of course.”

“For Sora. Yeah.”

Maleficent could practically see the apathy, the denial wrapping around his heart. If Sora Lost, she had gained a strong ally. 

If Sora broke the armor, well, she would be hear, holding him, as one of his sins put into another heart was destroyed. 

She may not be a crone, but it isn’t hard to pass as a mother. 

Children have low expectations. She had watched enough to know. 

Oh how she enjoyed her schemes. 

* * *

  
  
  


“Sora, stay here! We’ll handle this!”

“Wait, you can fight against the heartless?”

There was the pause from the already halfway out the door animals, moving with a speed too quick to not be practiced. 

“How can you tell?”

“Uhhhhh, keyblade powers?”

It wasn’t exactly easy to explain that you could hear darkness, Sora began to realize, and with the stress of the armor he couldn’t think straight for long enough to explain it. 

Donald and Goofy shared a look, and hudled. 

They didn’t want the kid to go into war yet. 

He didn’t deserve that. 

No one did. 

As parents, they began a huddle, concern heavy in their hearts. 

“Gawrsh, I’m not so sure...we can have him in the back right?”

“The kid might be necessary if we heard that roar from here. You can defend him, right?”

“Well, maybe? I can’t defend against cholesterol, multi level marketing, trigonometric collapse, bells, and, uh, you.”

“You can, great. Keep him out of the frontlines, I’ll handle the beast. Don’t let it hit him.”

“Uhhh, oh kay Donald, whatever you say!”

“COME ON SORA, WE CAN’T DILLY DADDLE!”

Donald grabbed him by the hand, running out of the mansion as Goofy said bye to Anita, leaving Cruella pinching her nose, before going back to work. 

“Idiots, if the worlds don’t end by the hour, anything is possible. Might as well become a famous designer, that's more likely than them winning!”

She was left alone, cackling in smoke, alone. 

* * *

  
  
  


The three heroes of this tale broke through the door, entering the first district, before the door clattered into useless metal pieces in a burst of green, catching them off guard as they jumped back from it. 

A little fairy smiled in the balcony hidden from sight, before returning to her charge. Perhaps she’ll teach this trick to Riku…

The Guard Armor wasn’t quite so passive, swinging at the people in the balcony with its purple gauntlet, betraying no emotion as it made to grab them, before Donald froze the clawed armor and made a slide down. “Come on! Get on solid ground!”

Goofy picked up Sora, and then began sliding down on his shield as if he had been doing it all his life, reaching the ground as the hand broke free. 

It began stomping the ground before they managed to get off, bouncing on the shield as Donald stumbled next to its boots. 

It really was quite intimidating, the large form of the armor was the biggest enemy Sora had encountered so far, towering way above him. The free floating gauntlets, spinning around the main body looked almost clawlike as they flexed like fingers. The feet weren’t much better, formed from two large blocks of metal and held together by a thin half leg. 

Focus!

He jumped from the shield in time with the stomps, summoning the kingdom key to slash at the main armor, hoping that it couldn’t switch attacks very quickly. 

The crack of thunder surprised him, as Goofy cried out “SORA! You don’t know if you can crack the armor!”

It was a bit too late, as Sora had just collided with the shoulder of the armor, swinging as hard as he could. 

The keyblade bounced off, knocking Sora out of the jump and sending him spinning, where he saw the still sparking gauntlet that almost got him. 

He was caught by goofy’s shield, tinking off the armor before bouncing off walls, as Donald summoned chains of ice from the ground, heads with open maws sprouting as they snaked around the armor, freezing the separate components but the main armor. 

“Sora, we barely met ya, ya goof! We can’t have you going off to die for us, leave the real heavy work for Donald!”

The staff suddenly opened up, a beam of fire hitting the heartless emblem on its chest as it spiraled, the armor staying the same color even as the brilliant light hits it, having Donald go back a few inches from the strength. 

“I can fight him too! Can’t I?”

“Well, maybe-“

Goofy ran all of a sudden,dodging a chunk of ice as the gauntlet broke out before throwing it at another coming for Sora’s head. 

“Is the uhhh, metal cockadoo able to do anything? Since I doubt your kingdom key is gonna do much.”

Sora hooked the key around Goofy’s waist, pulling him back as the ice began to move again, the shards flying at the emblem, spreading frost as they strike, before the armor spins, sending them flying across the walls. 

It kept spinning however, and deep inside the armor light began to spin. 

Rather quickly a ball of lightning began forming, and one of the boots broke free, approaching the duo, Sora switching to metal chocobo as he leaves Goofy where is, and strikes the gauntlet with metal chocobo, sparks flying as the two clash, before Sora being tossed away, splashing into a fountain in the corner. 

Goofy, seeing Sora safe, proceeds to ram into the foot, knocking into the beam of fire Donald began to cast to attempt to disrupt the now worryingly large energy ball. 

With a dull thoom, the ball fired, and another formed rather quickly, forming a rapid fire volley that it shot across the Arena. Goofy, seeing one approach Sora, sent out his shield, letting it bounce around, reflecting a solid third of the volley back, bouncing around Sora almost like an automatic forcefield. 

As it crossed Sora’s face, he could see a reflection in the shield for a brief moment. 

But it began to feel like an eternity when he heard the voice of Metal Chocobo. 

“Maybe you should stay here, safe. Let the professionals handle it. Look how much the duck can do. I’m sure that they don’t want to escort some kid.”

“I’m not just a kid! Thats not fair!”

Sora pulled out the kingdom key again, using Regal Blades and letting the boomerangs slip through the shield, attacking the center in an attempt to maybe weaken the cannon. 

“Why are you doing that? You aren’t here to help them. You’re here to find your friends, Kairi, Riku. You know, the ones you care about.”

“Well yeah but...I want to help them too!”

“Why? They can help themselves. This isn’t like the dalmations, where she couldn’t do it. These are very competent people. They could do it themselves. The keyblade isn’t a reason, it follows the wielder.”

“Well…”

Suddenly, Sora saw something. The Gauntlet that hadn’t been frozen was preparing for a strike against Goofy, and Goofy was unaware, acting as bait for the volley. 

Sora jumped onto the shield, kicking it so that it would begin sliding towards Goofy, and Metal Chocobo equipped. 

Goofy was a friend!

He could feel the pocket where he put the black materia open, and crackling as he slid towards goofy, black cracks spreading across Metal Chocobo as he arrived, and then he kicked off the shield, jumping and slamming down on the armor of the hand, unblemished plate. 

There was a resounding bell like noise. 

Metal chocobo was cracked throughout, black bars of steel being the only thing keeping it together, the handle shifting as he wielded it. 

Much worse for wear was the gauntlet, suddenly smashed in, damaged for the first time this battle. 

Goofy, catching the shield, rammed it into the hand, pushing it away as Sora landed, looking at the new keyblade. 

All the Ice shatters at once, and Sora is struck with a thought. 

Why are they his friends? 

He just met them. 

The armor began to spin, the claws swirling around each other, forming a ring around Sora and Goofy, the torso still firing seemingly at random. 

Donald began raising himself a platform of Ice, forming a barrier from the now freed feet, kicking the ice that encased them back at Donald, quickly switching between fire and thunder in an attempt to stun the legs. 

“Goofy, can you handle the arms? I think I gotta go help Donald!”

“Sure Sora, but don’t forget your launch!”

And sure enough, Goofy did kick Sora up into the air, just as the hands closed in on him, him spinning against the hands to let the shield block their attacks. 

Sora is still thinking about that oh so earnest thought. 

He thought of Goofy as a friend. He already had friends, that was a fact, he had a lot. 

So why did his feelings and thoughts disagree so. 

In midair, the head began rattling near Sora, so he swung the keyblade, once again the armor ringing like a bell as the keyblade created a deep gash down the top of the head. 

He landed keyblade first, Metal Chocobo creating a shockwave as it landed, before Sora swung it at the joint in the hammerleg closest to him, swinging it up with a satisfying crack as the leg closed like a vicegrip, before turning around and reflecting an incoming energy ball, and finally smashing it into the pillar of ice, shattering the ice and the leg, with surprising strength. 

Sora wasn’t that strong. 

But he felt that strong, with Metal Chocobo. 

He didn’t think Goofy was a friend. He felt it was true. 

“Sora! Cover me, I’ll try and attack the head, see if that stops the limbs!”

Sora nodded to Donald, and blocked an oncoming ice lob from the other hammerleg. 

Goofy rammed through the cracked gauntlet, shattering it as it couldn’t handle another hit. 

Was this what it meant, that feelings were real? Just as real as anything else that he could touch? It already strengthened metal chocobo. 

He felt that there was a fire emerging from his keyblade, that it burnt off the love he held for his friends, the sadness from destiny islands, all of the feelings he’d kept cooped up. 

He switched to the kingdom key, and let it burn. 

He missed, not expecting it to have so much recoil, and falling down, having to block the hammer leg as it took the opportunity to stomp on Sora, the two parts attempting to close on the keyblade. 

Donald, a bit later, shot a blizzard towards the head of the heartless. 

The Fire, by sheer luck, landed on the head, heating up the metal out of sheer feeling put into it, and then quickly cooled by Donald’s blizzard, the cracks growing as it shifted so quickly between the two extreme temperatures, looking almost like a spider web had dropped on his head with inky black dye. 

“Throw the keyblade at it’s head! Go!” Came out as Donald called down lightning, wrapping around the hammerleg on Sora

Sora obliged, throwing metal chocobo and hoping that he wouldn’t miss twice. 

His throw struck through, diving through the head as it blew up into a million pieces. 

It did manage to stop the ceaseless fire of energy balls, but it began to spin wildly, beginning to ping pong faster than goofy’s shield, knocking him back to Donald’s spire. 

“Gawrsh guys, sorry for being late. Whats the plan?”

Sora, not quite knowing what to do, desummoned his keyblade on the other side of the battle field, focusing on the action, before resummoning the Kingdom Key, splitting it into the blades and casting Fire on the edges, the flames burning a deep crimson. 

Donald exited from the ice spire before the hammer leg smashed it while flailing in lightning, before laying down his plan. 

Sora, agreeing, began to throw the blades at the leg, criss cuts of searing heat appearing as the armor began to glow from heat along the thin lines. While he’s doing it, Donald begins supercooling Goofy’s shield, before the leg goes to attack Sora. 

The Gauntlet, knocked out of the spin, also begins to approach the group. 

Goofy rams into the foot, the rapid cooling metal suddenly splitting the foot into multiple parts as its unable to stick together at the melted seams. Goofy keeps ramming past it, however, taking the now paralyzed foot and ramming into the gauntlet, ramming both into the walls, before Sora uses Metal Chocobo, and smashes both of the armors, the final additions to the battleground now littered with ice and metal. 

“Now, Sora!”

Sora jumped into the air, landing on Goofy’s shield, launched up as he began casting fire on the Torso as Donald encased it in ice, the fire bouncing around the inside of the armor as frost expands on the outside, before reaching the apex, switching from Kingdom Key to Metal Chocobo, and diving towards the heart of the Guard Armor, preparing a slash. 

Guard Armor, in response, started spinning within the ice, all the metal pieces being sucked through the bottom from throughout the arena, being centrifuged into raw darkness by the fire and speed inside the hollow chest, forming a fine point of swirling darkness at its neck. 

The key and the armor rang as a bell, the sound slowly rising in tone as the armor bends under the strength of Metal Chocobo, the dark ball firing weird as the armor finally shatters, exploding into a shower of metal, before fading into light and disappearing into the circlet on Sora’s hand. 

Convenient!

* * *

  
  


Maleficent could hear the final toll of her heartless. 

Pity. She expected it to put up more of a fight, but she supposed the feelings of a sleeping boy were never to be as strong as she thought. 

However, she could see his façade shatter, and the severity of the situation hit him. 

Tears began running down Riku’s face, gasping as if he was dunked in cold water. 

“I did this. I'm a horrible person. Oh my god. I don’t deserve Sora. I’m worthless. He deserves better.”

“Come now, my child, you know he would love you back. Thats why you love him, isn’t it?”

“He doesn’t deserve to be loved by a monster… by a killer. What else could I be.”

“My dear child, please, do not make this more than it is. No Monster cares for his friends as strongly as you did. You are strong. You simply walk near the darkness, thats all. If Sora abandons you for such a slight error, then is he truly the one you loved? Child, come cry into me. I am here for you.”

They stayed there in picturesque sadness, Maleficent smiling. Its always nice to take advantage of someone at their more vulnerable, when the armor has been completely crushed. No suspicion of the witch holding him tenderly as he cries into darkness. 

“Repeat after me, dear Riku. Sora ought to love me past my mistakes.”

There was a muffled sound, and they disappeared into shadow, only one sound remaining as naught but a wind remained. 

“I deserve Sora’s love.”

* * *

Sora fell down, taking heavy breaths as he sat down, unable to help the grin on his face. 

“Did you see it Donald! I cast Fire! I told you I can do it!”

“Yes Yes now help me clean up the large chunks of ice before your big head takes you to a different world all on its own.”

“Yes Yes whatever, but you have to admit that the fire was pretty cool!”

“I was the one who had to figure out how to use it! And the ice was much cooler, right Goofy!”

“Well I think it was quite clever to use Goofy’s shield like that, yes, would have taken you more than a few years to come up with that maneuver, ey Donald old sport?”

“Yes what the- wait who are you? I’m afraid I don’t know you, I don’t think at least.”

“Have we-oh, no, nonwe haven’t oh dear, forgive my manners, the name is Merlin, although I do believe Donald may know me?”

“YOU OWE ME MUNNY FROM THE LAST POKER GAME!”

“Yes Yes quite true, but see, that's not due for another 8 years so it doesn't matter. Anyways, I am here on other matters, come, come to my house, we’ll fix you up with a spot of tea and a spoonful of sugar, I know the sugar bowl has been eager to get out of the bag.”

Sora blinked, before asking. “Don’t we have to clean this place up? And aren’t we also locked in? I know I saw one door disappear.”

“Oh. Are we? Yes I suppose those would be issues, lets see, what was the right train of probabilities…”

Sora got a good look of the man that had entered so suddenly, his plain blue robes and hat looking rather floppy, seemingly cheap fabric, a medium length walking stick in hand that he used to trace some figure in midair as he muttered to himself. 

From his large canvas bag, all of a sudden, came an owl, with rather intelligent eyes as it looked around. 

“Are we there? Its dreadfully stuffy in he-ah, why yes I would say we are close enough.”

“Ah, yes, I neglected to mention, my companion Archimedes is also here, a formally educated owl.”

“DONALD!! DONALD CAN YOU ENCHANT AN OWL TO TALK! Oh my god I can have a talking animal friend oh-“

“Educated, Educated! As if I would stand for the pomp and circumstance of being an Enchanted Owl, knowing this old wizards track record. And we are not in timeline 826G4A, you fool, and you should know it! I know you struggle without your equipment, but geez.”

“And aren’t we animals too Sora? Or, well, maybe not cute animals. But we talk! Don’t we Donald!”

“You big palooka you’re talking right now!”

There was a light heartedness Sora had missed. 

Being with friends. Allies. 

Maybe he could have had this before, if he wasn’t so busy being sad. 

“Sigh Merlin, I swear you are as great a mage as my toe. The spell you are looking for is, as I recall, ‘Salitas Paritas Aretas’, before you mess up the timelines even more.”

Merlin nodded along with archimedes’ hint, before blinking in realization, and with a smile dragging the stick to a certain point, before moving the wand like a baton. 

“Bah, you worry too much archimedes! Now, Salitas Paritas, Aretas Tee, Abree Ratee Pitatiti, alakazam and kalakazoo, open sesame and bring the doors too!”

As he did so, the ice began to spin away, forming snowy winds fading into the sky, while the previously hidden doors seemingly filled in with light, including a door looking rather off in the corner, made of brown sandstone and decorated with runes and images of magics. 

“Yes, yes that’ll do. Now, come, come, we’re dreadfully late as it is. I’m sure Lenore is expecting us already!”

He tapped on the door a few times, flames engulfing it as it slid open, revealing a cave inside, soft green light coming from some place that shouldn’t be in the city, a lakebed as dry as a rock, and a small house on an island. 

Sora, Donald and Goofy stepped inside together. 

* * *

  
  


The house was rather barren once they entered, Archimedes settling in the rafters as Sora looked around, the many holes in the walls seemingly ready to crumble at any second as they are held up by cloths. 

“Yes yes, this will to nicely, yes the lakebed is quite, uhh”

“Structurally sound, you old coot, you forget the word so often I learned it and I can’t even cast magic now can I?”

“Yes Yes, Quite. Donald, be a dear and cast some thunder on the lake, I’ll take it from there.”

Donald quickly retorted, “Why can’t you do it!”

“Well, well, you see, I’m afraid I only have power for one spell after transporting through worlds, and would rather not like to destroy my bag searching for the beacon.”

Donald look unimpressed with the explanation, but cast thunder anyways. 

Merlin took that time to raise his arms, and began doing similar conducting as he did in the third district, before beginning to recite what Sora could only describe as absurdity. 

“Figitus Higitus, Zickety Wack,

Lakebed move brick for brack,

Thunder stay and thunder blow,

Regatus Rigatus Felinus Coh!”

As thunder had struck the lakebed, the bolt, rather than disappear, began to multiply in the same area, every bolt looking exactly the same as they struck in time with the song, the lakebed gaining a small crack from the repeated volley. 

“”Hoppity Scotchity, and a side of merlot,

Creaks and crack hapirezo!

Expand, multiply, age like the dawn,

A wizard of time commands it so!

Rigitus Pokatus zingagazoom,

Bricks released fix up the house of one room!

And decorate the floor like marble too!

History Rigory, Necessary,

shift the stones and let me set for tea!”

The crack spread in a rather unusual way, seemingly aging in a precise way where certain parts seem to become younger stone, and others age and expand the crack, releasing bricks that then begin to fly, setting themselves onto the walls of the house.

The wooden roof as well began to regain some vigor, fallen timbers reattaching themselves and regaining the vigor of freshly cut wood. Halfway through the rebuilding, Merlin paused. 

“Archimedes, do you remember the weirdway phrase to Atlantica? It see”

“Its ‘Shells and Glitters, Scala Weeters’, you doddling old coot.”

“Ah yes thank you. Ahem, 

Shells and Glitters, Scala Weeters,

The flooding water recedes to here,

And ceases to wither!

Indoor plumbing, what a feat, Rara Ha Zeer!”

The spell began to move again, and the empty lakebed began to be filled, the cracks suddenly erupting with water as fine white sand settled at the bottom, the last stone in place by the time it finished the floor. 

Then Merlin suddenly increased in alertness, the large Canvas Bag bursting open as he seemed to be wrapping up. 

“Figitus Migitus, higgledy wack,

Set the table and don’t leave a book in the back!

Prestidigitonium,

And with this verse the spell is done!”

For that last verse, it was almost a rush of movement inside, carpets and shelves spinning around the people inside the house, the dark and moody room lighting up as candles and lamps and mirrors emerged. 

“One sugar or two? And do be snappy, the Sugar Bowl is capricious after moving. Come along come along!”

Donald and Goofy seemed to be used to such requests (or in Goofy’s case, a bit slow to pick up on peculiarities), responding rather quickly. 

Sora, on the other hand, was looking around as the furniture began to settle, he felt something hit him on the top of his head. Rubbing it, he turned to look, and saw the sugar bowl with its handles crossed almost like arms. “Oh, uh, 3 spoons please?” Sora let out, hoping it appeased the ceramic. 

Seemingly satisfied, it joined the tea set and added the sugar just as they settled on the table. 

Chairs pulled them over to the table all of a sudden, as Merlin sat down with them. 

“Well now, what was it that the king requested of me? Oh its going to be so long before he does...I believe he wanted me to help you with magic?”

“The kid can already do magic thanks to yours truly, with no help from you.” 

“Donald, don’t take all the credit, come on, I learnt the whole, Crimson Creed by myself!”

“Oh really! Then what does the lamp burn with? Huh?”

“It burns on emotions! Hope, despair, the things that paint the world! Not any desire, but what's around them!”

“My, that's remarkably clever, actually, for the both of you! I didn’t believe anyone knew the creeds, no thought they were lost some time ago, 3 or 4 aeons ago. Where did you find that, Donald old chap.”

“Got it from some old coot afraid of dying.”

“Ah, yes, dreadful little mystery, all the assassinations. Does well to obfuscate his form, but very old indeed, although simultaneously non existent. Yes yes I’ve contacted yen sid on the matter but the stars won’t tell him anything. Bah, Stars, what can they tell you! Haven’t I always said that, Archimedes?”

“Yes, yes you have sir. Now let me sleep. And do remember, the fairy godmother is waiting for your signal. Can’t be very comfortable in that carriage, all cooped up, Great Fairy or not.”

Sora, still getting his bearings straight from the conversation, piped up, sipping from his cup of tea. 

“Creeds? There's more than one? And w-wait, murders?”

“Why yes, Creeds plural! Let me see if I wrote it down when I found them...drat sight always seems to elude me with compa-Ah! Here we go. Ahem. 

Glass lens and Crystal eye, 

They see the light in different tries,

And so too must our grasp be,

On fluid water, on solids seen

Fire Fire burns without desire,

Lights the world, in the lamps old rise,

Burns on oil born from life,

But Hearts Desire lives for Long, 

When fed with water, truth and rum

Frozen words and frozen mouths,

Freeze the fires before they start,

Lamp of Ice, Lamp of Cold,

From words it will be born,

Whether lies now freezing, 

or Truth quite bitter like stone

Forged from Thunder, the lamp now made,

Racing quicker than hare or mane,

For this lamp now born from lightning,

Bears the sigil of life not abating,

Lightning flees, silent thunder, the lamp will fade,

The world no longer

In darkness lies the quirks of life,

Rising to meet the lamps last line,

Healing wonders from the loss of light,

For plant to plant, root to root,

Their light inside, is now quite shared

Yet darkness lied, lost of lamp,

Yet even empty, life was glad,

For they knew, beyond their light,

Lied other plants, sharing their sight,

And so they grew, and bonded they did,

Even though their lives never met

But desire they had, desire and want,

Born from the font of what they had lost,

Flowers did bloom, lampshades from leaves,

And from the memory, they brought it from the stream,

For Water Remembered, for water made you forget,

Your Self, Desire, your Loss and the Bet.

And with light, and heat, and other things,

Came once again, rushing winds,

The plants, they splintered, bent and whiffed,

Till animals emerged, to ride the wind. 

And so the brave crow, took the wind,

And brought it petals, and tamed it instead.

And yet this story, is one of the many,

And the light might have been lost, 

Or the lamp be fraught, With failure or tears, 

In a world like ours. Time flows on,

Time flows through Ton, different and yet,

At the end there is only one.”

“No, no no, go back to the murders, the murders peopl-“

“It seems my time is up! Now, remember those words and don’t trouble yourself, I’m sure the murderer will be caught in due time. Yes yes…”

He tapped his wooden stick on a pumpkin the the corner, and in a swirl of sparkles emerged the fairy godmother. “Hello, darklings, oh I do hope you are doing alright in these dreadful times.”

“Dreadful times, yes…” Merlin had passed out in his chair. 

“Am I the only one concerned about the murders!”

“Oh, you won’t be able to do anything about that quite yet, as much as you wish with all your heart. No, I’m here about the hearts inside your heart!”

“Sora has hearts??? And here I wondered why he was brain dead, its all going to his hearts”

“DONALD! This is serious!”

“Yes, Yes it is. I’m afraid the hearts need an escape else they’ll go stir crazy, why, Vanitas is already going mad.”

“He wasn’t already?” “VANITAS????” “That name sounds familiar…”

“Wait, you know Vanitas?!?”

“How do you know Vanitas, he died 10 years ago!”

“VANITAS IS DEAD???? Oh god can I talk to the dead oh my god, oh my god aaaaa”

“YOU CAN TALK TO HIM AAAA”

It was at that moment that the disembodied trio came back from introducing each other, to which Vanitas could only react in laughter, while Ventus silently pondered why the duck and dog looked so familiar. 

“Why, how wonderful for your heart guests to join us! Now, darlings, line up, don’t be shy, Heartbinding is serious business!”

“SHE CAN SEE US I UNDERSTAND THE SCREAMING!”

“Thank you, Ma’am, but I don’t think Vanitas is ready for the outside world. Or hands.”

“I'm so glad I finally have another reasonable person in this heart.”

“Oh settle down dears, come on. Now, let's start with you, Kairi.”

She began to swirl her wand, light emerging from the Form of Kairi as she did so. 

Sora, curious, felt the urge to ask “What exactly is Heartbinding?”

“Well you see Sora, when the worlds begin to collapse, people begin disappearing into darkness even though they individually don’t fall into Darkness. This leaves their hearts in a precarious position, desperate to escape. This means that hearts lost cling onto, I suppose, to the hearts of those that escaped. These bonds can be crystallized to protect those hearts, forming gems. Summon gems are sadly, a natural tragedy, occuring on multiple occasions. For example, Kairi here now has this gem. The Lighthope gem.”

She then flicked her glass wand, and suddenly in her hand was a yellow gem almost the color of paopu fruit, with an ombré similar to Thalassa Shells on the sides. 

“And then I help prepare them to be awakened! By shaping the gem into a pane, so that the bond between their world and them gets magnified, allowing for them to return! However, your heart forms bonds so strong, its able to simulate it, projecting its light through these heartbinders to give your friends form!”

The sparkles flowing from her wand seemed to wrap around the gem, stretching it as it revealed a paopu fruit design in the middle, the ombré pulled like taffy and then only showing as gems on a metal frame that appeared. She then proceeded to start handing Sora the paopu heartbinder, before pausing. 

“Now, p-oh you don’t have a pocket there. Hmm, yes, that is- oh, silly me!”

She waved her wand once again, this time the shimmer hitting Sora, and he blinked. 

“As I was saying, put the charm behind your jacket, and it will go to a pocket dimension, to make sure that these stay safe. Yes yes, go on. I’ll tell you how to summon them when I finish the other two.”

Sora acquiesced, feeling it disappear as he let it go when specified, before Kairi spoke. 

“I didn’t think it would be this easy to get my body back…”

“Oh no dear, its not your body. You will still have to find that, or in Vanitas’ case...make it? I’m afraid I don’t quite understand your birth.”

“No one does. Not even I do.”

She nodded as she finished up his Darkstorm Gem, and handing the Unversed Heartbinder, a sinister red shade that was rather dark surrounding a black unversed emblem, to Sora, and starting with Ventus. 

Goofy had to ask, “Is the, uh, keymajiggy’s reason for choosing Sora that bonding ability?”

“Oh no! Sora wasn’t chosen! I believe it was Riku that was chosen, if I heard the wishes then right. I’m afraid it was quite long ago, and my memory is not what it once was. Losing your base of operations does that to you I’m afraid.”

She formed the Lostwind gem, stretching it out into the Sky heartbinder, a green heartbinder with a broken heart (think the keychain of lost memory), and they were all put away by a numb Sora. He wasn’t chosen?

Donald had a few reservations, and wasn’t very much concerned with silencing them either. “What do you mean Vanitas will get a body! And Sora has the keyblade doesn’t he, how can he not be chosen!”

“Its all rather metaphysical, but in short, the chosen had succumbed to darkness, so then the keyblade of light was unable to go to him. It's really a coincidence that Sora got the keyblade, as far as I know. Or perhaps its fate, I’ve never been one for the grand games of reality. I help the hearts of people. I suppose the only fair-oh I shouldn’t think of her, brings cursed luck.”

“YOU DIDN’T ANSWER THE IMPORTANT QUESTION ABOUT VANITAS!”

“Give the poor boy a try! He had a good side before that heartless given body man took him. Now Sora, focus on your bond with Kairi, and I’ll use my magic to get your heart used to the process. Now come on, don’t be shy.”

Donald huffed as Sora closed his eyes. 

Kairi. 

One of his closest friends, the one who came on that fateful day. 

Someone who could put up with Riku, someone who would never soften a blow. 

There was a shimmer in his mind's eye, and he landed on the station of awakening, soft blue light shining from beneath. 

The vast darkness beyond the station however, began to glimmer. He tried focusing on what was glimmering, and suddenly, Sora could see stars. Not like real stars, but the friends he knew. 

He could hear their names as he looked, and the one that was glimmering was pretty obvious. 

Kairi. 

Like his own, hers was softly glowing with pink light, illuminating the sky around her, and suddenly he knew what to do. He pointed his hand, and the blue light from his platform extended like a laser from his hand, weaving into Kairi’s, and her light suddenly expanded like an aurora, decorating the dark sky. 

Suddenly, he could tell the other two stars he could do this to. 

He could feel the heartbinders, and he sent his light at two twin stars much farther away. Clouds of purple and green stretched out as their stations of awakenings emerged, doves flying from the center like they did for him so long ago. 

He was snapped out of that state by Donald’s screams. 

“WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE SORA!”

Sora opened his eyes to see his own face with golden eyes in front of him. 

“You know, its a lot weirder being able to touch your own face. And you really should be asking why Sora has MY face. I came first, I have seniority.”

“Vanitas. You got that face from Sora. Don’t make the angry duck angrier.”

“Oh what is he gonna do, when I can just snap my wrist, and then be- wait why can’t I beam down to freeze people!” Vanitas’ tone quickly became panicked as he waved his keyblade wildly, attempting desperately to do something, while Sora was gasping for breath suddenly. 

“Oh, yes, I’m afraid you won’t be as powerful as you once were, you are drawing power from Sora, and he isn’t that powerful just yet. Or perhaps ever, if his magic doesn’t mesh with you. Being summoned isn’t a replacement for being alive, and really is much more effective if you have a body.”

Donald chose that point to not stop laughing, unable to get out a word. 

“Gawrsh, Donald, it's not likely to laugh at others misfortune! The poor child can’t fight back.”

“I AM NOT A CHILD” “HE IS A WAR CRIMINAL GOOFY”

“Honestly I don’t feel all that different.”

“Well, to be fair Kairi, you were a kid. We had a bit more experience under our belt. Back then I could summon tornados and storms, riding on the wind. Now I bet I could barely summon a breeze. It's weird, not being able to do what you did so easily.”

With a seize, Merlin woke, and pulled out a crystal from his beard. 

“What are you still doing here! Go! Go! You are late already, don’t let us keep you waiting. Here, use this beacon, Donald’ll take you to the gummi ship, we only have a short time before you’ll be late, the white rabbit won’t stand for it! Come now, touch the crystal, hop hop!”

As he let the crystal drop, it fell on its point, before melting into the ground, forming a circle of light before fading. 

Donald grabbed him by the sleeve, and he faded into green light shimmering. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On Metal Chocobo, Volume 2
> 
> After shattering a deep pervading sense of loneliness, Metal Chocobo gains the ability to sharpen, forming a Buster Sword, able to infuse the magic of the keyblade inside of three slots traditionally used to hold materia, it sharpens the blade and increases its strength even more, making a formidable weapon in Sora’s hands. 
> 
> The Art of Fire
> 
> The art of Fire is born from emotions free of reality, memories pure, the workings of the heart. They say that it is the easiest magic to master, due to how familiar the heart is to the self. One of the three fundamental magics in the universe due to its position as the Heart of the Lamp according to the ancient knowledge. 
> 
> Feelings are the Hand of the Self  
> Feelings burn bright, revealing reality  
> Feelings burn brightest when born from reality. 
> 
> Beacons- Sometimes known as “Safe Points”, these crystals bind to the ways between, forming a space free from the flow of time within worlds. Made from Bright Crystals, this allows them to instantly restore the self, and access the natural flow of power within worlds. They can naturally form within worlds, or be made by Wizards. The power is mimicked by items like camps and tents. They are also able to connect to each other, able to transport one from any point to any other beacon, as long as they do not cross the Borders between Worlds (not to be confused with the World Order.)
> 
> Guard Armor - Born from the Tragedy of the Islands in Riku’s Heart, The Guard Armor is the growing apathy as the boy had to protect himself from the consequences of his actions. The Armor of Denial is among the strongest armors heartless have, able to bounce off most attacks short of magic, or great physical strength. Made to Test Sora’s Strength in Traverse Town.


	9. Intermission Inbetween

Sora and Vanitas were alone in the Gummi Ship, having gone into the pantry of the Ship (Vanitas having dragged him away as soon as Donald’s Tour of the ship had finished), and they were in the room lit by a flame that was weirdly lit by a flame with black border, seeming hungrier, more vicious than Sora’s yellow and red fire. 

It captured the anger in his features rather well, Sora thought. 

Or at least it would if it wasn’t his own face. 

“Hmmm...I think the golden eyes really pull together my look, I don’t think you could pull off this drip. This statement. This iconic look I am pulling off.”

“It's a jacket. And a print t-shirt.”

“Better than that raggedy wetsuit you have on. If I were cruella I would have simply burnt it off. Better than seeing it for another second, if I was a fashion designer.”

“Which you are not, Mr. Muscle Suit and Helmet.”

“Kairi! What are you doing here!”

There was something almost bizarre, well, actually bizarre, as she walked through the ceiling, her form casting Vanitas’ into dark shadow as she lit up the room ever so slightly more, and Vanitas’ shadow reacted much more violently than it really should have. 

“Well I was bored as Ventus and Goofy were catching up, so I figured I’d talk to my favorite person and his look alike that I just discovered was in his heart.”

“I’m your favorite person? I thought that was Selfie?”

“Sora, take a compliment when its given, god I’m going to have to train you to be selfish aren’t I? Kairi how did you get him to do anything, I can’t figure out the secret, and I’ve lived in him for YEARS”

“Hey! Don’t talk about me like I’m not here! And I do PLENTY on my own thank you very much! I made 2 new friends in the span of a few hours, and you probably couldn’t in a few years!”

“I can see the influence Ven has had on you.”

“Anyways, what was that about a muscle suit?”

“OH RIGHT You couldn’t see their bodies! Its so weird being in your heart, its like, being a ghost? You should try it Sora!”

“Oh, and tie his heart into a pretty little pretzel? Please Kairi we explained all of this!”

“Well I’m sorry I don’t understand this immediately! Plus I get it more than Sora don’t I?!?”

“Hey I know about stuff! Try me Kairi!”

“How many parts are needed to make a person.”

“Forgive me Kairi I was wrong.”

“That's why I’m the smart one. Except for Selfie, but she would just ask how its related to stars. Then Tidus would cut in with a w-I should stop. We shouldn’t speak of the lost.”

“They aren’t dead kairi. I know they aren’t. We’ll find them. You’ll be back on the beach with Wakka and Riku and all of them. Even if we go to the end of the world.”

“Damn you really are taking it slow to the whole, multiple world concept huh. There is no end. The day the worlds end, we’ll be but a mite of paper in the history books. Except me, because I’m clearly going to be in the King section of history. Because I’m too pretty to be a noble and too petty to be a peasant.”

“Yeah, and too black to show up on film with that hair and jacket. Didn’t you hear? Black and white is out of fashion?”

“Kairi, please. He’d need people who want to photograph him in the first place before worrying about showing up in film.”

“That's the Sora I know! Come on, walk around, smile. You said it yourself, you’ll find them. I’ll sacrifice myself and keep Vanitas in here, compliment his ego so he doesn’t keep pulling you aside to look at his face.”

“Not my fault I appreciate the best part of Sora.”

Sora winked as he left the pantry, the flame snuffing out as light entered. 

It was going to be weird getting used to their little magics. At least Donald’s was basic magic. Too much style in everyone else’s. 

It gave him a heartache. 

* * *

  
  


Not long after seeing Sora leave, Donald approached the Pantry. 

He knew that darkling given voice was hiding in there, especially after Sora left. 

Goofy and Ventus might be willing to let the demon loose, but Donald had made his fair share of deals with demons. 

Loose Terms sink ships, much greater ships than just a small ship in the sea between. 

He was not about to be among them. 

He entered to a Dark Flame, or better said a fire spell laced with darkness, for the darkness was just as repugnant to light as this Soldier was to him, and the Girl bathed in Golden Light, like Ventus’ white light that seemed to surround the everpresent wind or Vanitas’ shadow curling and blinking on his jacket. 

Kairi, his mind supplied as he prepared his tirade. 

Alas, Vanitas had a wit quicker than his bill. 

“Oh, has the little duck come to look for the bad egg to kick out? Don’t forget the pretty little fact that Sora’s heart would shatter without pretty old me, you know.”

The grin was rather terrifying, until Kairi slapped him, slight sparkles emerging from the contact. 

“Don’t be rude to our host! And you are in the Pantry, did you expect to not get interrupted? Sorry Donald sir, Ven and I really are trying to teach him manners.”

“Don’t worry, Kairi. I know how to teach manners to kickstarts. It's actually what I’m here to do.”

There was an ominous crackle in the air. 

He was a Court Magician. 

He could do better than this kid’s petty tricks. 

The sound of wood on feathers could be heard as the illusion of his staff hit his hand. 

“See, I know Vanitas. And I’m not a big believer in people changing, not when they are safe from the consequences of their actions. I just want to make sure Vanitas knows the rope is there.”

“Are you deaf as well as vain, you old coot? You can’t hurt me. I’m shadow. Empty. Cool. Its beyond what your petty spells c-“

He was interrupted by a little blast of pure light as Donald snapped his fingers, as Vanitas shielded his eyes. 

“A Demon always thinks it's the biggest fish in the pond until proven wrong.”

“Fine old man. I’m listening. Unless you want me to call you ma-“

“Vanitas I swear to god I will ask Ventus how he channeled light to get you to shut up, let the duck TALK!! I swear Sora at least began with respect, even if he got lost in the clouds too often…”

“Rule number one. Respect anything I or Goofy tell you not to do. We want to run this ship on happy faces, and if you go too far we will have to punish you.”

“Punished? By Goofy?? He couldn’t even tell a baby what to do!”

“He raised Max well enough, I think. And he did manage to become Captain. I think that requires just a bit more skill than teasing a kid into starting a war.”

“Fine. The second rule?”

“Protect Sora. We need him alive when we find the King. Who knows why, but the worlds will fall.”

“Did you forget, I’m tied to him? Besides, This little redhead would slap me silly if I ever even raised my ke-“

“You would never. You forget, I know you. I know you are a lurker. A schemer. Perhaps it was the hands of Xehanort, and if so I’m sorry, but you will protect him when able. Even I know he would run into danger blindly, and I don’t know him all that well. You, you will be his knight in shining fucking armor if even a shadow moves menacingly against him. Got it?”

There was something of a tinge of familiarity to Donald’s words, as if this wasn’t the first time it's been said. And there was also a very potent threat, his feathers gaining a frankly concerning brightness in Vanitas’ own opinion. 

Kairi interjected on his behalf, however, and he couldn’t help but be thankful of the interruption to his thoughts. 

“Why are you so protective of Sora, anyways? You barely know him, and there’s theoretically so many more keyblade wielders, that like, I don’t think Sora is that special…”

“It's because Sora is so handsome, he doesn’t want it to go to waste, you know? We are twice in a lifetime, but if you push it any more it will fail.”

“I already have one pair of triplets that made me go white. I don’t need another… and even then. Goody and I… we might not be there all the time. And Sora definitely needs someone keeping him from dying.”

It was just a bit too tender. 

A bit too soft. 

Vanitas and Donald were both extremely uncomfortable, before Donald moved on. 

“And don’t go looking for trouble. God help us if we aren’t already drowning in it.”

And with those words, Donald left, and Vanitas and Kairi were left in the silence of the Pantry once again.   
  


* * *

  
  


“You know, veggieta”

“How many times do I have to tell you, call me Ven! We’re friends aren’t we?”

“Well Ven, we really should call up Queen Minnie, she ought to be worried sick about you, up and disappearing, you know.”

The pair of Ventus and Goofy were currently in the Navigation Room, just under the cockpit. Ventus was staring at the globe of stars in the center, fascinated by how...available, he supposed, different worlds were, the swirling stars of countless stars simply being there, rotating and spinning around each other, like games of cricket played on larger games of cricket. There were only a few paths available from what Ventus could understand, only a few lines connecting the white dots, with one flashing particularly bright. 

Goofy, on the other hand, was mindlessly typing up the menu for the week, flipping switches and buttons at seemingly random, but the computer picked up the meaning well enough. 

Somehow. 

“Maybe later? I’m still getting acclimated to like. Technology. Like, I didn’t have fancy ships! Look at this! It's a map! We could never have a map back then! And you can go through the Ocean Between and eat! You know how hungry I got in my armor! I would have KILLED for a snack! And here you have bread! And beans! And meat! And a STOVE dear lord a STOVE! It's just…”

“It's alright, Ven! Feel free to talk to old Goofster, I know quite a bit about not knowing! How would you feel about Shepherd’s pie tomorrow night, to celebrate the unity and spirit of friendship and all that?”

“Sounds fine, delicious if I could eat!”

“Can’t you?”

“Well maybe? If I tried? It's really weird determining the line between what this not-body can or can’t do. But I guess this isn’t exactly…common.”

“Maybe Jiminy knows, he’s a lot better at the knowing part of thinking, personally I’ve perfected accidental wisdom, but Donald says that's not how thinking works, and he’s a lot smarter than me.”

“Uh-huh…” muttered Ventus, slightly disinterested as he got distracted by the stars. 

Until a little weight landed on his shoulder. 

Almost by instinct, a gust (weaker than Ventus would have liked) pushed against the intrusion, and when he turned he saw a small anthropomorphic cricket, hovering in the air. 

“Oh, forgive me for dropping by unannounced, the name’s Jiminy, and knowing’s my game. Bless the Blue Fairy for her gifts and all that.”

“Name-“

“I know your name, Ventus. I know plenty! Didn’t Goofy mention that? Comes with being a Conscience, know Right from Wrong, High Lord of the Straight path, help people stray from the Harsh Light and Deep Dark, all that wonderful stuff. Helps to find the truth too, if you know just a touch of magic! If only Pinocchio could see me now…”

“Aw shucks, you’ll find Pinocchio Jiminy, I can feel it in my hat! Or maybe beneath my hat… somewhere above my head. I think.”

“I know I just. I miss him. Feels weird to be independent all of a sudden. Anyways, what did you want to know!”

“Well, I was wondering if I, as a heart, can eat food? Do I like, have the stomach, or is this m-“

“I’m going to stop you right there, and state simply, the heart can taste, since the senses are a part of memory and the heart, but the pounds will all go to Sora. And good for him, he’s scrawny as a sapling, needs all the food he can get.”

“I-ok? Is-is this normal for crickets to know? Goofy, how much does Jiminy know??? Does he know everything??”

“Well, gawrsh, I never thought about it, but his there journal is filled with a whole bunches of factroids…”

There was a silence that fell over the room, Jiminy blushing but remaining silent as the pistons and buttons provided a gentle rhythm. 

  
  
  
  
  


Sora burst in through the door, smiling starstruckedly as he had just passed the beautiful window that was the cockpit, shaking the hollow atmosphere of the room out of its stupor, Jiminy nowhere to be seen. 

“Hey guys! Whats up!”

“Oh, well...I forgot, Venti, do you remember?”

“I don’t think I want to. No, no I definitely don’t want to. We were doing absolutely nothing.”

“If that's what Ventasaurus says well I believe him! I think…”

There was a noticeable sigh as Ventus slid down the star map to be eye level with Sora, meeting his confused gaze with somber green eyes. 

“Also, I hope you don’t mind if I eat too much, because apparently the forbidden knowledge tells us it goes to you, nutrient wise. But J-he was right, you do need some meat on your bones, dear lord.”

“You were with me for years and you never noticed!”

“Well I was a shadow of a heart forgive me for not having EYES!”

“And who are you calling skinny! If you weren’t made of wind it’d push you around!”

“I-m scelte! And Thats sorta the point! How else do you fly, if I had muscles I would simply fall!”

“You are lying and you know it, you are just self conscious about looking like a kid!”

“How do you know, you just met me!”

“Because you look like a kid but act like an adult! Its not that hard to figure out!”

“You were never this bright before, why can’t you be the dumb lovable Sora…”

“Gawrsh, you remind me of Donald’s nephewdabobles, the triplets. So similar, and yet always arguing. And don’t worry Venewellyn, I’m sure your body’s grown up nice and strong! You just have to find it!”

“Well yes but thats the problem no?” “WE ARE NOT THAT SIMILAR”

“Well, you both are very childlike, and think similarly, although maybe, er, it's because of the heart connecty thing, no?”

Ventus shrugged as he landed on solid ground for the first time this whole conversation, his lazy gliding having brought a nice breeze that now settled. “I mean maybe? Who k-“

There was a pause, and Ventus seemed to age 50 years in one second, before recovering.”

“I don’t know. And no one should know. I don’t trust anyone who knows.”

“Well if no one should know, then do you know what they shouldn’t know?”

“Gawrsh, are we getting close to Wonderland? Its starting to sound like the Queen’s court, wonder of Lord Fishinschol will arrive soon…”

“Can he leave his world order? Has that much changed in the 10 or so years?”

“Oh no, but the path to wonderland is filled with nonsense, or something like that, all ways are her way after all!”

“Goofy, you are making less sense than ten years ago, are you ok?”

“I think it makes sense, at least, assuming the world’s don’t make sense. Traverse Town didn’t, so why would Wonderland.”

“Why didn’t Traverse Town make sense? It seemed to be a fairly standard order from what I saw.”

“It was all bricks! Where were the trees! The sand! And the stars were different too…”

“Well, I suppose there really is no limit to what is wondrous, now is there? Since you can come from anyplacer, and go to anyother plasterino, then er, the plaster dries weird on the placer, or is the placer placing plaster weird?”

“Why are we talking about plaster?” “What exactly, is plaster?”

Ventus and Goofy look at Sora for a minute, then at each other. Goofy giggled first, not that it really mattered as Ventus was quick to laugh as well. 

All Sora could do was put on his frowny face and hope they wouldn’t remember as they walked out, done with whatever they were doing in the room. 

Soon all three were laughing under the stars in the cockpit, a million and one worlds there. Who knows what's happening out there. 

* * *

  
  


In a place not quite there, but there enough to not have ended as a world, and not quite then, although a few days ahead, there were three sisters draped in black, grey as the ashes of the world burning around them. 

With onyx scissors glowing dimly, one began to pull a bundle of threads taught, too many to be any one death, before grabbing another. 

Fate is tiresome on the best of days, and these are not those. To condemn worlds is exhausting, and the Grey sister’s eye was tired of measuring the thread to line up. 

With a sickening snip, the bundle of strings fell, and the sky darkened just a little. 

“Why, ladies! How are my favorite not gray Gray Sisters weaving! Have you taken my recommendations on the order of collapse and the protagonist falling to darkness?”

“Yes, Yes Chaos, of course we have.”“Do you take us for fools, or is”“your simple mind simply unable to comprehend anything past a random number generator?”

“Jeesh! Harsh crowd, don’t you think, Clarion?”

“Well, personally, I don’t see much room for humor after losing my seasonal ministers. We can’t all thrive in the end, Chaos.”

“My, you’re almost as boring as my twin!”

“And so I appear in a dashing coat of pink, if I do say so myself. Which I do. And what may I do, for you!”

“QUIET! Have some respect for the end of some worlds, you rude cats!”

“Yes, Order, have some respect!”

“Chaos, you are not exempt from the rules, except those that you are, and I’m afraid that respect is among them!”

“Cheshire Cat, dear, if you are able to disappear into just a smile, why is it that your voice never seems to? And the same for you, Chaos?”

“Nature abhors a vacuum, thy Queenship.”

“And I work in random things, not lack thereof!”

“Quiet! It is time to actually discuss what is happening!”

The words were right on time with an explosion in the sky, bursting and filling with red light as the strings fell loose. 

“Well, first Imust acquiesce, life that does not fall into darkness will not survive. Without Never Land and its fairies, all seasons will fade, and no life will remain by the end of the year.”

“And quite a few worlds depended on those seasons as well, their Order was quite strict. A shame the first world was lost, me thinks. Of course, whose to say which one was first, without years to count!”

“And alas, that fated hero, as we all know, fell quite deeply. Bizarre that she chose to, fall to a human cradle, I approve.”

“She had to. We said so. Can’t defy fate, even if you are the greatest power in the battle.”

“Must you self aggrandize so? I understand that you see all and know all and have the final say, but it is rather rude to keep bringing it up.”

“You’re just bitter Lord Milori of Winter fell to darkness!”

“Well you were the ones who wove it in! You can’t exactly say otherwise can you!”

“She has a point Clotho.”

“Quiet, Atropos! And besides, we have more worrying things to worry about. Such as deciding whether Sora is to be a hero.”

“You know, one thing I never understood, how do you guys choose what happens, if you already know what happens? And you don’t seem to know what happens in these meetings either…are we SURE these sisters are the real deal? I have a contact in the Norse, we could call in the norns.”

A cackle from Lachesis. Clotho decides to respond for her, snatching the eye. “Can it, fur ball, we said it last time and I’ll say it again: We know all since the tapestry has been repeating, and whenever we leave these meetings. Big decisions cascade, you know.-” Atropos interrupts, knocking the eye out of her socket and falling in with a sickening plop, “And we can’t see what the loom and designers of fate will say. Free Will says so.”

“Well he isn’t invited to these, now is he? So does free w-”

“Ours, you idiot cat! And now, a vote for you three. Does Sora turn Hero?”

“Yes Yes, I say Yes! Forms a nice story, an accidental hero using the power of friendships gained through the worlds defeating the chosen one and the big bad, leading, of course, to time travel through 5 easy steps!”

“So predictable, yawn! I still say that the worlds are restored by a chemical explosion of 4 worlds in the end creating a flashbang and burying the door, keep some more plot threads on the ready.”

“Didn’t you say that the last opportunity we had to have something interesting? The Black Box is still hidden from existence, for goodness sake! Events must occur even if they aren’t as convoluted as your dreams!”

“My, even the Horn to end wars is angry with you, what a twist! Enough for you?”

“No, brother dearest, but she makes a fair case I suppose. But I still say, randomness includes the chance of it not to o-“

“You’ve been outvoted already! Now shut up and let us weave!”

“Fine fine! God, the end of Order comes around and no one listens to chaos! But Cheshire, old chap, you wouldn’t want to be late to the first visit to your world! I know how you love your foreshadowing, and they are approaching the end of the trip!”

“Speaking of trips, I do believe I saw Brimstone and Blue Flame approach. Perhaps you should hesitate with the weaving, until he arrives. He comes with requests o-“

“WE KNOW! Death is not above Fate!” “And he offers fifteen percent or more on home insurance, we can’t refuse that, now can we!”

“Mmmmmm, purrrr haps if you wrote your home free from accident.”

“He was scam-” “Of course he was scamming us! Still cheaper than Athens, have you seen those price gougers!” “There was that wonderful condo under the Norn’s Name…” “Asgard fell first!”

And so 3 of the most powerful beings argued while hiding the God of Death from the Oracle over insurance. Of course, this never happened, else the Oracle would have known, and she was busy elsewhere. 

Motherhood could feel all consuming. 

The fates could only cackle, thin wicket like fingers weaving the thread. 

* * *

  
  


A mother woke up in a world not her own, strange lights around her. 

And all she could do was cry. 

Cry for the people she lost. For the person she lost. 

For her child. 

She had awoken in a cafe, her face on a wooden table and a bright candle on the center of the table. 

It was a blur, there was food and someone comforted her (but she couldn’t remember who), and all she could think through broken breath and horrible throughts, was that she couldn’t lose another child. 

She had to find him. 

Sora…mom is coming. 

Please...stay alive, for her sake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Ocean Between: When people refer to space, this is what they mean. A Vast expanse, infinite and unending until it runs out of light. The only space vast enough to hold the concept of the world border, the second clause of the World Order, and the worlds themselves. 
> 
> While not inherently traversable, being outside of space and time ever since the catastrophe, due to the shattering of the heartless invasion, there have been crystallized blocks of pure...thing-iness, able to stand and travel within the ways between. Modern Engineering has shifted to take advantage of their fascinating properties, and I believe that the Disney Castle Royal Engineers Chip and Dale have drawn up a concept for a sort of talking box! Why, any captain worth his hook hand or sinker already has gummi varnish on their hull! Some say that flying ships are even becoming a sight, for those who do traverse.   
> Other methods of traversing include Keyblade Armor, where by hardening your heart to the void you can take that part of yourself and apply it to the nothing, but you are bound by the ways, rather than being able to access the whole ocean, due to the incompatibility of scale. There are also corridors of darkness and light, but these are both difficult to master and damaging to the self, burning the heart in more than one way, and are limited in reach, only being able to access half the realm approximately, and unable to approach nothingness. 
> 
> An important distinction within the Ocean is the Ways. The Ocean, in all its vastness, was inaccessible for much of its existence, except for a few connections between worlds, “ways”. These Ways are much more stable than the ocean, and are able to support existence without gummi blocks, but still require some protection to traverse, and will only ever be able to take one to another world, rather than the material rich deposits that exist within the ocean. 
> 
> Some speculate that the corridors may, in fact, simply be Ways that were closed in or before the calamity, corrupted in the landslide like tainted ponds. Perhaps that is why a perilous few draw close to the Nothings. 
> 
> Speaking of dangers, theres a few riskier methods of traversing the ocean, however they are unpredictable and unable to be controlled. 
> 
> In a few rare places, fortune breaks in laughter, and this leaves a Star Shard, which they say is tied with ebony string to the fates for them to pull you along their plan. There is also sheer will, or tragedy, or strength of heart, that can keep you safe for a voyage. However, these are not recommended, as you control neither when or where the voyage begins or ends.


	10. Think Thank Thunk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Down the Rabbit Hole! After, of course, deliberations
> 
> Finally, half of my ideas are ideaing in this fic
> 
> Also, fun fact, I have rough concept sketches for all the wonderland outfits, and I couldn’t find a way to sneak them all in. HOWEVER THE AMAZING DARGONPOOPS https://archiveofourown.org/users/dargonpoops/pseuds/dargonpoops HAS ALSO MADE GOOD ART OF TWO OF THESE OUTFITS AND I AM IN AWE!!
> 
> https://rapidlychangingfandoms.tumblr.com/post/644890729901178880/some-outfits-inspired-by-wonderland-for-the-uhhh

Sora was alone in the room that Donald and Goofy had taken him to after dinner, it wasn’t much to look at, much too simple, much too flat, none of the memories of the old room. 

But it was comfortable, and he was tired. 

So he slept like a log (like he always did). 

* * *

  
  


The blue light came to be familiar, but the sky was different. 

It had color now, he realized. 

Not just the bright stars and clusters that were the heartbinders, but the friends from destiny islands, Donald, Goofy. 

The crowns forming the edges of the platform also began to raise, ornate marble and stained glass shards decorating them as the keys stood upon them, Kingdom Key in Ethereal Peace, and the larger Metal Chocobo curled up in a ball. 

They would not awaken tonight, whether of boredom or from the lack of his energy, but they stood still like statues. 

(Sora could feel some part of him, pulsing inside of them. Maybe some part of him was in that Golden Ballroom or the Steel City from some dreams ago. Or maybe this place messed with his thoughts.)

He walked around, wondering if perhaps something would happen, or if he would spend the whole night here. Time probably didn’t mean much, else it wasn’t a very good dream. 

A stairway of light emerged from the edge of the platform, a new star that wasn’t there before suddenly bursting into his vision, brilliant like the morning sun, painting the world in red hues of rosy dawn. 

In a place not quite his but not quite theirs, they meet, his blue light and her red light intermingling like a full sky. 

Sora was about to ask ‘who are you?’ but the answer came like it did in the first dream of this place. 

“Are you Au-”

“Shhhshshshhshshshhshshhhhh! Names have power! Say my name and someone will probably hear! Dreams are weird like that! Call me Morning Rose, that should be enough to hide me!”

“O…kay? Morning Rose, why… _how_ are you here, and why am I here?”

“Once you see past the dreams it's hard to return. Sure wish I could. What’s your na- oh thats. Bizarre. I wonder how we are connected. Ah, who cares! It's just good to have someone else to talk to! How’d you get here anyways? You aren’t with those animals, are you?”

“Animals? I just woke up here a few days ago, what ab-”

“Oh! Wonderful! Nevermind the animals, it doesn’t matter. So, Sora, how are you doing!”

“Wait, why can you say my name if I can’t say yours!”

“Because I can hide you better! Not as shiny, you know!”

“Ok, Rose, lets act like I understand that, and I guess, welcome to my Heart Hotel? I don’t know if we have refreshments, but you seem to know about this place better than I do.”

“It comes with walking in here anywhere from a day to a century at a time. Never saw a starry sky though.”

“Oh, the, uh, Fairy Godmother gave me them, I think.”

“They are very pretty, kinda wish my heart had connections like these.”

They walked down the stairs, Aurora with an elegance that Sora tried to imitate (and failed to), and cupping her hand, an invisible mist materializing and forming a goblet of some red liquid, shimmering. “Want some wine?”

“Wine? Whats that?”

“Fruit Juice but for rich people, I’m fairly sure. I never could drink it, never was rich or old enough, but in dreams it tastes divine.”

“Hmm…Why not, I guess.”

Sora looked closer as she summoned another glass, seeing the blue light condense to fat droplets, and fuse into a much less regal, yet much more familiar cup, looking like one of the ones he remembered his mom having. 

For the first time since he met her, the elegance slipped, her hand clumsy with the unexpected lightness of the cup. 

“I suppose I should have expected such a thing from island dreams…its so weird to have dreams of sea and troubled nobility, without being noble! How curious!”

“I know like, half of those words.”

“Its the lingo, you’ll pick it up after a while. I think. You’re really the first I’ve met that can talk to me.”

“Wait, there’s others?”

“Well, other people dream, don’t they?”

The juice was… like smoke, Sora decided. It was heavy and thick and cloying, and yet he liked the taste of the thick wine. It also felt light as a feather, and as if it would disappear any second. 

He thought about this, attempting to ignore the thoughts about seeing other people. 

He was resting his brain, he didn’t thinky big thoughts yet. 

“Could you s-”

“Nope. Yours is the only one I’m able to find now. I'm in a… compromising position, so I have to stick to the brightest lights, and you were...VERY bright. You have a nice heart here.”

“Well, can you teach me how to do this? It seems convenient, and kinda cool!”

“Well… Maaaaybe? I’m not entirely sure how I do it, its simply comes to me like a nice dream. Maybe you’ll figure it out?”

“Maybe. Why are you traveling anyways, and not…dealing with whatever situation you have?”

“Oh, I was looking for the keyblade wielder, hoping I could send a distress signal or some such. Of course, I have no idea who is the wielder, so. I kinda am just treating this like one long nap, maybe the Order will handle it.”

“The order?”

“You know, this goes here that goes there that makes the worlds run. The Order!”

“But I don’t know.”

“Eh, you’ll figure it out eventually. Dreams are a fairly good way of getting knowledge if you know where to look.”

“I think you overestimate how good I am at the whole, knowing. Thing. Kairi is always the thinker. Or Riku. Or Selphie. Or literally anyone except me.”

“I’m sure thats an exaggeration, you got out, didn’t you?”

“Well, that was the keyblade, probably. I’m guessing. It might have been Vanitas?”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess you could be pul-WAIT YOU WIELD THE KEYBLADE?”

“Why-OH, OH WAIT MY BAD I MISSED THAT.”

Suddenly Sora looked extremely embarrassed, as Aurora looked at him with incredulity. 

“You are right, you really aren’t a thinker. Anyways, uh, are you already doing the whole, saving the Princesses of Heart tour?”

“Princesses of Heart?”

“Wait, you don’t know? Doesn’t the keyblade choose from aware worlds? Actually, I don’t know that well myself yet…” She knocked her head, closing her eyes too tight as she seemed to try to dislodge memories. 

“I think I remember them being important? Its hard to remember, especially when only in dreams. Constitution and whatnot.”

“How do you know so much anyways?”

“Memories? Who knows! I’ll tell you next time you dream a dream with me!”

“Wait, where are you going?”

“Where are _you_ going, is the real question. Remember, look after the princesses of heart! I think...or watch out? You’ll meet one of seven big things! Bye Sora!”

And the light became thick, thicker, all consuming, and Sora woke up. 

He sent his well wishes to her, hoping she would be all right. 

And would figure out her words of advice before crashing a perfectly pleasant dream!

  
  


This managed to distract him from Vanitas’ face inches from him. 

Vanitas, being Vanitas, gave him a slap, but learning to be nice (against his will), made it a little slap. 

“We’re here, Sorta. Get ready at the cockpit.”

He grinned, before standing up and stretching. “Unless you need another slap to wake up, I’ll be glad to provide.”

Sora jumped out of bed, pushing Vanitas away, the supposed brother vanishing before reappearing standing up, to his elation. 

“HAHA! Can’t touch this! But seriously you’re too slow, put on your jacket and get moving, you don’t want to miss this!”

Sora practically bowled over Vanitas, the elder sprawled as Sora got out the door, the jangle of his zippers being the only noise as Vanitas embarrassment grew. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


The cockpit was abuzz with clicks and whistles, the hums of sleepy engines filling it as Donald flicks switches and presses buttons, waving Ven away like a cloud of smoke as he floated around like a wisp, Kairi talking animatedly with Goofy. 

“So, you lived at a castle, right?”

“Er, yeah? What about it?”

“Do you like, have a record of people? A registry, like in the stories!”

“Well, errrrr, I wouldn’t very well know, or should I?”

“Oh, because Donald would be in charge, rig-why are you asking me whether you should?”

“Well, er, I can’t read, so I wouldn’t know the letters or wordy things, like regulars, er, regem ultima, or was it ray beams? Whatever, I’m afraid I’m not privy to those sorts of things.”

Kairi was unable to come up with a response (what do you say when you assume someone can read and then they can’t? Is it that he never bothered learning? She doesn’t want to be insensitive…) and as soon as she formulates some fragment of a response, Goofy had moved away, to flip switches she couldn’t even begin to understand.

She _relished_ in the distraction that came in the form of Sora and Vanitas, Vanitas standing on his high top heels victorious, Sora tripping with only his head visible from the door. 

Kairi would have been concerned if it was anyone else anywhere else, but really. 

Sora has a thick head, and the gummi ship was some of the softest material she had ever felt (maybe. She was still getting used to the not existing in a body thing), so there was no chance Sora wouldn’t bounce right up after a few seconds, maybe after Vanitas boasts about winning. Thats when he always interrupted Riku back at the islands. 

But then again maybe comparing a boy made out of shadow and darkness with her best friend spoke more about Riku than it did Vanitas. 

“I am the superior clone! Sora shall never be the true Sora! I shall take his name!”

“Rematch, you only won because you tripped me!”

“Unimportant information we have places to be, worlds to visit, fun to have!”

“I will find a way to have my revenge! Brown Hair superiority!”

Donald sighed (Kairi could understand him getting into hijinks with Goofy, so he probably could tolerate higher amounts of funny business. Maybe. She could barely understand him really, without Sora there she wouldn’t.), before motioning them all to sit down in the chairs. Or maybe just Sora, there were dreadfully few seats, only 3. Kairi shut down the materialness (its so weird, having a completely new muscle that changed whether you could touch things.)

“Waack! Quiet down! We’ll be landing in Wonderland, and I want to make sure you know what to do! As people with the royal mage, we can’t have you quacking around with the order! So! Sora, do NOT talk about other worlds, even if they say ‘Oh, I came from another world’, even if they look exactly like someone you know.”

There was a glare, and Sora couldn’t tell if it was just his imagination, but he swore he could feel a tingle running over his body, like thunder, lingering over his neck. 

He fiddled with his necklace, attempting to ignore the imagined feeling. 

“So, don’t talk, got it. Anything else?”

“I don’t think you need to know about anything else.”

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t look the type to start an insurrection.”

“A what now?”

“Exactly.”

The ship shuddered, and down they went, into the planet. 

* * *

  
  


The gummi ship landed on what sounded like ceramic, the world crunching beneath their feet. 

The world was smooth as far as the eye could see, no features but the roof tiles beneath them, and a rolling cloud on the ground, extending a fog behind it. 

It passed by the group, exiting the gummi ship, and Sora could feel...something hovering over his shoes, switching them out to the ones Cruella had made. 

As they walked away from the gummi ship, it folded into itself, the monochromatic colors refusing to have shadow or light as it folded into a tiny replica in Donald’s hand, which he tucked away into one of the zippers on his outfit, unmoving. 

Just how much stuff was in those zippers?

Goody, however, spoke up before he could vocalize his doubts. 

“Well now, I do believe, er, the rabbit hole would be thataway, at the source of the fog logs, if I remember the last time I came.”

“Why are you so unsure? Don’t you visit every so often?”

“Well, err, I usually go to the beacon, but I didn’t want to leave you guyses behind, that would be rude, ahyuck!”

“I...ok?”

Sora guess it made sense, if he thought about it like leaving someone in the school in the middle of a tour, but the bigger words just hurt his brain, and they were turning at random, even though the world is flat and they could probably use the gummi ship and…

He took a wrong turn by accident, lost in his thoughts, and suddenly he couldn’t see anyone else. He didn’t really think there were wrong turns, it was all flat!

He looked around, and in the distance he could make out his party, maybe? He stepped to approach them, and stumbled as suddenly there was a giant hole to his right, or maybe not all that large, as the tile suddenly seemed much larger. 

He began walking backwards, tracing his steps, but still the world shifted almost randomly. 

Until a feathered hand grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back to the group, Kairi laughing at something. 

“Please, try and keep your mind from wandering, this damn world is torture for the few of us who bother to think, which by some miracle includes you. Don’t think too hard about that either.”

Sora, as he could not think (APPARENTLY??? THAT WAS A THING WORLDS COULD JUDGE) simply listened. 

And asked Kairi why she was laughing please oh god don-he’s safe, good. 

“Well, while you were thinking you shrunk to the size of a mouse, flipped upside down, I couldn’t help but laugh!”

“Kairi, thats not very nice!”

“Or funny, I’ve seen much better physical comedy!”

“Maybe you guys are just too old to have a sense of humor! Or more likely, too judgy…”

“OK YOU DO NOT GET TO CALL ME OLD GET HE-“

“Gawrsh, I think this is the place?”

They were at a small hole, too dark for Sora to see anything. 

He tried to hear anything down the hole, but it was all too much like gears, nothing useful. 

Until Donald pushed him in, that is. 

Then it was all screams as they all plummeted. 

All in all, Sora wasn’t sure he was liking this new arrangement. 

  
  


So they were falling. Goofy didn’t seem to mind, laying down, and Donald found a nice chair to fall in. 

Sora, having tired out his lung after falling for a minute, decided to see if he could maybe light it up. 

Good practice for casting fire too!

He thought about the feelings that had started the first fire, and focused on what he could only assume to be the edge of his finger. (Donald always glowed with some spell flickering or another, although it was shifting with the sound of ruffling fabric.)

He could see flickers of light barely emerge, lighting his hand, but it flickered out in an instant, an illusion. 

He thought about the feelings again, how they felt when burning, and tried to replicate it again. 

It began to feel warm and fuzzy on his hand, but it still didn’t seem to come out. 

Focusing on the energy as well, he tried to push it out like he did.

Unconsciously gripping the other fist, he summoned the keyblade in it, and pointing up, he summoned a flame at its end. 

On his finger, the warm and fuzzy definitely not a spell grinned. 

He was all screamed out, so he couldn’t really scream at the decapitated cat’s head on his finger. 

The darkness resumed as the focus faded. 

“I would think that purrrrhaps rather than arson, the solution to the lack of light would be the lamp. Or are you perhaps too blind to find it?”

“I-er…yes I had no idea there was one.”

“Well of course! What good is a reading chair without a lamp to read with!”

Suddenly light flooded the area, and on a desk next to Goofy was the body of the cat, paw on the light switch. 

The first thing Sora noticed was the different clothes, Donald’s Clothes becoming a cloak with intricate design golden embroidery and a geometric theme, Goofy getting a strangely similar suit to his own, although much more green, and WAIT HE HAS A SUIT wait no don’t think about it yet he might get lost aga-

“Lost in thought once more? I would have thought you had learned your lesson about letting your thoughts wander up on the roof of the world!”

“I-wait no I don’t-I’ll stop thinking!”

“Should be easy for you, Sora!” And a warbled type of laugh emerged from Donald. “Donald, don’t be mean! Why, when I think, or I think I think, I can’t really think about not thinking, or I think I can’t”

“That's because you don’t think!”

“Oh thats right! Thanks for the reminder, gawrsh, it must be so difficult for Sora to do so then.”

“My, what fun companions! Oh, I knew my vote counted for something, I sure hope you won’t disappoint in this new storyline! But I suppose you have a few more companions, even if they can’t pass through the world barrier with ease.” At this point, the body leaped, jumping from desk to bookshelf to a globe, seemingly walking sideways as the head continued. “Shame, really, that truth comes so much harder without the body. Poetic really, useless sack of flesh in all other endeavours. Or maybe your friends are weak, I’m doing fine without my body!”

The body wiggled a bit, the stripes seeming to fall out of sync before uncoiling around the globe, and then disappeaeing as it kept spinning. 

“Perhaps I’m simply more flexible, bow where were you going? Tea, War, The Queen’s Way?”

“Well, I thought we were going down bu-”

“AH that's right, down! Well I’ll have you there in a wimba way second! Just think heavy thoughts, like for example: the world ends in just one week!”

Maybe the cat just had impeccable timing, or maybe he was right, because it was at that point that they landed with a thud. 

“Oh, but don’t worry! A week is much longer if you siiiiiiimply add some E’s, which I find rich in this place. The caterpillar certainly thinks so, when he is not so vain as to flutter.”

The Cat may have spoken, but was nowhere to be seen. 

Twat. 

  
  
  


They were recovering from their tumble (except goofy, who had just fallen asleep during it), sitting on the furniture that...probably had fallen from above? Sora was onnthe couch, while Donald was tentatively sipping tea next to what seemed to be an infinitely falling teapot, never quite landing on the table. 

“So the world probably isn’t ending in the week, right Donald?”

“Probably not, everyone in this blasted place speaks in riddles or verse or rhyme, he probably just means that there will be a period of something in a week or some other ridiculous thing that makes no sense.”

Ventus, reconstituting himself, also spoke up. “Plus, it goes against the world order to know the world is a world, no?”

Donald nodded sagely (Kairi couldn’t help but feel weird about how many animals it seemed would be the ones knowing things.), before Goofy sat up straight, raising his ear to hear...something. 

Then, as far as Sora could tell, from somewhere he couldn’t see, a white rabbit in a formal shirt holding a too large clock started running, muttering to itself about his lateness, running down a hallway that wasn’t there, with similar decorations to the room they were in as it started being, beams of light shining down to reveal more until he went around a corner. 

“I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date! Oh my tail and whiskers I’m Late I’m Late I’m Late! 

Hello Goodbye I’m afraid there is no time, I’m late I’m late I’m late!”

“Gawrsh, I didn’t get an invitation, I wonder what the event is?”

“You haven’t gotten an invitation for years, ya goof! They probably moved on!”

“We are traveling with outcasts, I refuse to believe that you are rich, that these are some of the top levels of government. Ventus, please, I beg of you, tell me they are grifters. Please!”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Vanitas, but they are in fact the King’s Men.”

“Nope, No, I can’t hear you- GAH!”

“Doubt us now, you little…”

Donald had taken the chance to jolt Vanitas as Sora began to head down the hallway, fascinated by the weird nature of what he could only assume to be architecture. Or maybe he was finally having a normal dream. 

Given, usually he didn’t have a suit in his dreams. 

So he supposed it was to be real, since he certainly would never imagine himself in anything quite this fancy. 

Time to follow the white rabbit, he supposed. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wonderland  
> A Crossroads between worlds, its often debated whether it is one of the twilight realms with a very string order protecting it or a standard world of light with troubling ties to darkness.  
> When philosophers that know if the worlds discuss the advantages and disadvantages of breaking the world order, this world is the most commonly brought up, having a deliberately malicious Internal Order where the Great Darkness rules by fear and wrath, arguing that it would foster a cesspool of darkness nearing the realm of darkness, while others mention the lack of heartless creation within the world even as it has a doorway to darkness within, citing the strong order as the protection that is causing this anomaly.  
> Speaking of the Doorways, Wonderland has many, being the center of what ancient texts call “The Ways”, which form the basis for interworld travel for the last decade, although recently pushed out of the spotlight by Gummi Technology. These ways theoretically expand throughout the entirety of the world, where they are at their most finicky. Some say that there must be a doorway, albeit a small one, that allows direct access from the realm of darkness, for shadows to leave the realm of light with ease.  
> However, much knowledge is obfuscated by the residents, often the greatest source of information about a world. Most commonly foiled by a Cat, which seems to foretell becoming ever so lost and returning to the surface, but also by the Queen of Hearts, executing any threat to her power, and all other residents seem completely unaware and contradictory, unable to tell us anything of use.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and Comments are greatly appreciated! If I did something oof, comment to tell me how I suck, or maybe just compliment the work! Or, you could leave a kudo!


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